It’s a SOUP made out of PICKLES and CREAM

Or, never let it be said that I am afraid of trying new things (recipe included)

I kind of like the way it looks like crusty sea monster is trying to get my soup, don’t you?

One of my dear friends in Canada tried this recipe at a restaurant and was kind enough to pass it to our group of friends. Where we skeptical? Of course, but she said it was really very good, so a few of us decided to give it a go. I am not nearly as brave as our friend that served it at a dinner party. She said reviews were mixed and although she wasn’t over the moon about it at first, the second day it completely won her over.

And that’s when I was brave enough to give it a try. I am finding that it’s one of those foods that gets better the more you eat it. First spoonful I was just glad it didn’t kill me, second hey, this isn’t too bad and now I’m drinking it. It’s incredibly rich with a bit of tartness from the pickles. It’s kind of like if tartar sauce were a soup, in a good way.

For garnish, I made a panko crusted fried pickle. I’d planned on making traditional Southern cornmeal dusted fried pickle chips but it turns out I was out of cornmeal and pickle chips. These were good and dead simple: I halved petite dill pickles, dusted with flour, dredged in some beaten egg then panko and fried. You could serve these with any sort of dressing, like honey mustard or ranch for dipping. Fried pickles aren’t my first choice, but if somebody orders a basket, I’m happy to dive right in.

And for dessert:

It’s a peppermint stick! In a pickle! A girl at work told me about this, oh 5 years ago. Seems it was quite common down in Mississippi where she grew up. Alas, I only had petite dill pickles left and tiny candy canes, so I made do. I think maybe it would have been better with a more peppermint-y candy cane, this one had a muted flavor. It wasn’t gross, it just wasn’t good. I’ll have to try it again with a huge pickle and a proper peppermint stick sometime in the future – possibly when I finally get off my butt and track down one of those Kool-Aid soaked pickles they sell around these parts.

Recipe for Dill Pickle Soup

Courtesy of Chef Donovan Sawatzky of the Hoodoo Grill

Ingredients:

6 Dill Pickles

½ Med. Red Onion

½ cup pickle brine

2 litres whipping cream 35%

1 Tsp ground black pepper

Method:

With a food processor, puree pickles and onions.

Transfer to a heavy bottom pot and heat on med/high for 5 mins or until carimalization starts.

Add pickle brine, bring to simmer.

Add whipping cream and stir to prevent from separating.

Maintain simmer and reduce to desired thickness.

Add pepper.

Serve

Garnish with a dill pickle wedge and a sprig of fresh dill.

Serves 4 meal size or 8 cup size

NOTES: I halved this recipe and it came out quite nicely. I did use 100% cream but my friend subbed some milk and hers came out fine. I probably wouldn’t use only milk, as the richness of the milk fat balances the pickles.

Tagged as: dill pickle soup, fried pickles, musuem of snack foods, peppermint stick in a pickle