Comments on: Acar Timun / Javanese Pickles

By: marissewalangkaparis

marissewalangkaparis — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:03:40 +0000

I will try this MM. Sounds really interesting…

By: EbbaMyra

EbbaMyra — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 03:06:30 +0000

Apicio – do you love thos Vietnamese sandwiches called Ban Mi? I do too, and I tell the lady to put alot of carrots and cilantro. Speaking of carrots, one time I only had “old”carrots in the fridge and I wanted to serve various veggies with ranch style dip. Well, after slicing lengthwise the carrots, I soaked them in cold “sugared” water (same with celery), thingking it might take out the bitterness from being so long in the fridge. Well, it was a success, the celery sticks and carrots taste fresh with mild sweetness in them.

By: betty q.

betty q. — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:20:03 +0000

Zena…give this ampalaya achara a try! Initially, you will taste just a hint of bitterness…nothing overwhelming. Sometimes, there is no bitterness at all. Then after that first two spoonfuls, you will reach for more. Then you will keep on opening the fridge and the garapon to get more as the day goes on. By the next day, you will notice almost a third of the garapon is gone and you will wonder…Did I eat that?

By: zena

zena — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:53:54 +0000

I found the ampalaya salad entry. Can’t say I’m brave enough to try ampalaya relatively uncooked as I have only taught myself to eat this within the past 2 years and I am in my 30’s, hehe. But I do enjoy the pickled version.
Betty Q., my first time to hear of pickled ripe mangoes. I grew up with the pickled green ones but your version sounds very interesting.

By: T.Greentree

T.Greentree — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:23:15 +0000

Okay now I’m craving filipino food. Filipino achara or anything pickled for that matter is heaven for me. I was the three year old in the fridge getting into gherkins, pickled onions and olives. I grew up and fell for the green mango and achara. I have found that achara is a lil sweet though in manila, so you have inspired me to make my own when i get back. I think I will adore the ampalaya recipe, a vegetable I cannot get enough of, after conditioning myself to like it in manila.

I’m still trying to work out how producers get the broccoli stems so long, and ask the heads to remain so small. I have always pondered on this!

By: Edwin D.

Edwin D. — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:16:35 +0000

Will definitely tries this thsi weekend when I have the time. Achara like ano? I ahve heard of the chayote achara as there is no green papaya in the 80’s ihere in the States. It was good but not as tasty as the real papaya achara. Now almost everything is found here in the States but it of no comparison to the real Filipino raised produce. The produce in Pinas taste better and very fresh; picked and rippened on the vine/tree.

By: betty q.

betty q. — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:09:53 +0000

When I make this ampalaya achara, MM, I make a BIG GARAPON of it. I never had the chance to prolong its shelf life by canning it in boiling water bath since this big garapon lasts only 3 to 4 days max. at our house. If I run out of it, the Asian store is just closeby and always have ampalaya year round. I would assume that it would lose its vibrant green color if I process it much like dill pickles though it would still remain crunchy like the baby dill pickles I make. Are there baby dills you could buy there? If you like baby dill pickles, let me know and I can share a really topnotch recipe I have perfected….also have rhubarb chutney, green tomato chutney and beet relish among others!

By: AleXena

AleXena — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:43:42 +0000

MarketMan I am proud to tell you that I followed your AMPALAYA SALAD recipe and the members of my family that eats ampalaya loved it so much! It will definitely be a typical side dish at our house.=)

We do a a cumcumber,carrots and jicima salad like with only vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar as to its brine. The process is similar but we do not cook the brine and we add the jicima. Can this be done without cooking the brine? Will it taste the same?

Thank you for sharing your recipes with us.=)

By: linda

linda — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:41:27 +0000

MM,have you tried making atcharra made from chayote (chokoes)?Prepare it with the same ingredients as you do with papaya pickles minus papaya and it really works.Here in Oz,we sometimes don’t have easy access to fresh green papayas so chayote is the best alternative.We always have this with tocino,longanisa and banh mi,sandwiches,etc..

By: Marketman

Marketman — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:21:31 +0000

Apicio, you are right, the Vietnamese version has a little more “bite” to it. I once spent a couple of weeks in Hanoi with a short side trip to Saigon (HoChiMin), and I LOVED Vietnamese food… noree, welcome to the site! my apologies for not putting translations for all ingredients, I tried to do that earlier in the life of the blog, but have gotten lazy lately. Siling labuyo are similar to Thai bird’s eye chillies. As a tip though, I have featured most of the basic ingredients on posts of their own. And the best way to find the post out of 1,800+ in the archives is to google it… for example, you could google “siling labuyo marketmanila” and you should get the right post… my internal on-site search function is less targeted. Btw, I did several dozen posts from a road trip to Ilocos that might be of interest to you, including dishes such as bagnet, etc. that I eventually replicated at home, from scratch… you may want to surprise your grandmother with a taste of the homeland, so to speak?! :) EbbaMyra, locally grown broccolli here are often sold with 8 inches of stem, primarily to increase the revenue from the sale. The stem is quite good when peeled and stir-fried, but pickled sounds good as well! k ramos, I love papaya acharra as well, so I think your sister might indeed like this version, and this one takes little effort… betty q, is that version of acharra eaten freshly made, or do you bottle it and sink it into boling water to sterilize it for longer storage? zena, I did a thinly sliced ampalaya relish with vinegar many years ago and did a post on it together with a fried tilapia, I think…