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Recipes with pickled gherkins

9 recipes that use pickled gherkins, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Fischbrötchen, takes 10 minutes. It is most often cooked with onion, butter and kaşar or mild cheddar.

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Rollmops

Rollmops are the pickled herring rolls of the North Sea and Baltic coasts, pinned with a wooden pick around gherkin and onion and kept in a jar of spiced vinegar; in Berlin and Hamburg they are the classic morning-after breakfast and a fixture of New Year's Day tables. Making them at home takes a week of fridge time but very little work. Because the fish is never cooked, use herring that has been frozen at −20 °C for at least 24 hours (most fresh 'sashimi-grade' or commercially frozen fillets qualify; ask your fishmonger), and keep everything chilled. Rollmops are not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: let the jars rest a full five days; the vinegar needs that long to firm the flesh and soften the tiny bones.

60 minGermanFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kumpir

On a warm evening in Ortaköy, under the Bosphorus Bridge, the kumpir stalls line up with trays of toppings and queues of students waiting for a potato the size of a fist and a half. The vendor splits it, beats butter and grated kaşar into the hot flesh right in the skin until it turns stretchy, then piles on whatever you point at: corn, olives, pickles, peppers, Russian salad. At home it makes a filling supper that everyone builds for themselves. Kaşar is usually made with animal rennet, so pick a vegetarian mild melting cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: bake the potatoes on a bed of coarse salt; the skins dry and crisp while the inside goes floury, which is what lets the cheese melt into it.

95 minTurkishVegetarianGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kumru

The kumru takes its name from the dove-shaped sesame roll baked in İzmir and is the city's favourite beach snack, especially at the stands of Çeşme. The roll is filled with slices of beef sucuk (spicy Turkish sausage), melting kaşar, tomato and green pepper, then pressed flat in a hot sandwich press until the crust crackles. Eat it with an ayran in the shade. Chef's tip: fry the sucuk slices briefly first so they release their red, spicy fat into the bread before you press it.

20 minTurkishMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ayvalık tostu

Ayvalık, the olive-oil town on the north Aegean, turned the humble cheese toastie into a feast: a long, soft loaf split and stuffed with kaşar, beef sucuk, beef salami, tomatoes and pickles, pressed hot, then opened up again to be piled with ketchup, mayonnaise and Russian salad. It is eaten for breakfast or as a late snack after a swim. This one has beef sausage and salami, so check the label if you avoid pork. Chef's tip: press it twice, once with the cheese and meats, then again after opening it to add the cold toppings, so the bread stays crisp.

25 minTurkishMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pfefferpotthast

Pfefferpotthast is one of the oldest dishes of Westphalia, written about in Dortmund as far back as the 14th century and still cooked in the Münsterland and the Ruhr for big family meals. Beef is stewed with almost as much onion as meat, plenty of black pepper, cloves and bay, then thickened with breadcrumbs and sharpened with lemon and capers. Pickled gherkins and boiled potatoes go alongside. Chef's tip: grind the pepper coarsely and add half at the start and half at the end, so you get both deep warmth and a fresh bite.

130 minGermanCurries
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Labskaus

Labskaus is the pink, rough-textured hash that ships' cooks made from salted beef and potatoes, and it is still on the menu in harbour pubs from Hamburg to Bremen, often as a hearty lunch after a cold walk along the Elbe. Salt beef is fried with onion, then pounded into mashed potato with pickled beetroot and a splash of its juice, so the whole plate turns magenta. A fried egg goes on top, with gherkins and, for those who like it, a rolled pickled herring on the side. Chef's tip: keep back some of the beetroot liquid and add it at the end, a spoon at a time; it is the sharpness that stops the hash tasting heavy.

60 minGermanMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Fischbrötchen

Fischbrötchen are what people eat standing up at the Landungsbrücken piers in Hamburg, on the Sunday fish market, or from a kiosk on the dyke at any North Sea harbour. A crusty white roll is filled with sharp marinated herring, raw onion rings, gherkin and a little crisp lettuce, and eaten in a few bites with the wind in your face. The herring is cured, not cooked, so use commercially prepared Bismarck-style marinated herring from the chilled counter, which has been frozen before curing as the law requires; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: slice the onion paper-thin and rinse it in cold water for a minute so it stays crunchy but stops shouting over the fish.

10 minGermanFish
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Matjes Hausfrauenart

Matjes nach Hausfrauenart, 'housewife's matjes', is the early-summer plate of northern Germany, eaten when the new season's young herring arrives in June, from Glückstadt on the Elbe to the cafés of Emden. Mild, buttery matjes fillets are covered in a cool sauce of sour cream and yoghurt with crisp apple, onion and gherkin, and served with hot boiled new potatoes in their skins and sometimes green beans. Matjes is cured raw herring, so buy commercially prepared, previously frozen fillets from the chilled counter and keep them cold; it is not for pregnant women, young children or anyone with a weakened immune system. Chef's tip: make the sauce first and let it chill for 20 minutes so the apple and onion flavour it before the fish goes in.

30 minGermanFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Smažený sýr

Smažený sýr, a thick slab of breaded Edam fried until molten, is the dish every Czech student orders at a Prague hospoda and the one vegetarian main that turns up on nearly every menu from Brno to the Šumava mountain huts. It comes with tatarská omáčka (tartare sauce) and either boiled potatoes or chips, and a cold pivo on the side. The joy is the crunch giving way to stretchy, salty cheese. Chef's tip: chill the breaded slices for 20 minutes and double-coat them, otherwise the cheese bursts out into the oil before the crumb is golden.

40 minCzechVegetarian
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Goes well with pickled gherkins