Dirty martini in pickle form. Yes, please! These cucumber pickles are brined with lemon, gin, and a little bit of green olive.
The secret to these pickles is the olives. Well, maybe the gin too. But definitely the olives. I mean, what’s a dirty martini without olives? I really wanted to get that olive flavor into the pickles. I could have used olive brine, but I also wanted to add some different flavor elements. Besides, all my olive bine is already spoken for!
So, I decided to use olives instead. Putting olives directly into the brine would not give the pickles enough olive flavor, but smashing them with salt to release their oils, would. I boiled the olive paste with the rest of the brine ingredients. Poured it over my cucumbers and five days later it was cocktail time!
Dirty Martini Pickles
Ingredients
- 2-3 cucumbers 1 pound
- 8 castelvetrano olives or other green olives
- 1/4 lemon zested 1-2 strips
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorn
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1/2 cup gin
Instructions
- Slice the cucumber and place in jars.
- Smash olives and salt together until they form a paste.
- Mix the olive paste with vinegar, water, gin, lemon zest. garlic, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil.
- Pour picking liquid over the cucumbers. Cool until pickles are room temperature and refrigerate. Pickles will be ready to use in 3-5 days.
