The Gang’s All Here

We had a meeting at RP HQ on Wednesday to review our best practices for Greenmarkets, Brooklyn Fleas, New Amsterdams, and the other direct-to-consumer markets and events we do.     It was good to see everyone in the same room at the same time.    I’m proud of our group of hard-working, talented pickle-loving folks.

The Crew In Effect (clockwise from the upper left: Raj, Jina, Jason, Doug, Anj, Wes, Deittra, Anna, Don and me.

Whole Foods Is Truckin’

I went out to the brand new Whole Foods in Fairfield, Connecticut last weekend to do a demo for the store’s opening weekend.     In addition to a killer display of our Pickle Essentials,

The Pickle Essentials, ready to help you get your BBQ on.

and some nice barrels for our bulk items over in the Specialty Department, it was cool to see the latest invention in action… the Whole Foods Food Truck.    They are using our Bee N Beez on burgers and grinding up some of the pickles for relish.    They made a nice sign… makes me look like a character in that old Marlon Brando Movie On The Waterfront.

What's the line from that movie? STELLAAAA!

You can see the green nose of the truck in the background.    I’ll head back there and take a proper portrait of the truck… it is good-looking.

Announcing the Hotties Recipe Contest Winner!

Folks, the competition was fierce. Our mouths were on fire as we tested and tasted the recipe submissions from all the Hotties lovers out there. After much deliberation and countless gulps of water, we have a winner. Drumroll, please…

Grand Prize Winner of a year’s supply of Rick’s Picks is…

CLAIRE BISCHOFF!!! She is definitely hot for Hotties, submitting not one, not two, but THREE recipes that cover an entire meal from appetizer to dessert. Wow-za! Complete with some beautiful pics. Congrats Claire! Your efforts will be rewarded by some pickled goodness coming your way today.

Big thanks to all our fans who participated in the Hotties Recipe Contest. Stay tuned for more recipe contests in the future!

Here are Claire’s THREE winning recipes below as well as her sweet note:

I used to live in Brooklyn for a short while, so am very familiar with Rick’s Picks.  When I heard there was a recipe contest with the new Hottie’s brand I jumped on the chance to win pickles for a year.  Unfortunately Rick’s Picks are not available in Montana, so to get them for a year for free, yes please. I had my friend ship me a jar and mulled over what would be the winning recipe.  I started talking to some coworkers (I work at a local bakery), and we all started brainstorming.  We came up with some great recipes, but decided we needed to test them out on some people to see if they thought they were great as well.  I run an underground restaurant, so we thought the perfect setting would be to do a themed pickle dinner to try them out.
The menu was a spicy pickle martini, a pickle deviled egg, spicy pulled pork sandwich with fried Hotties and spicy Asian slaw, and a chocolate pickle cupcake with candied pickle.  The event was a success!  There was not a dish they didn’t love, including the cupcake!  Attached are our recipes as well as pictures of the dishes and the event itself. Thanks for your consideration!

Sarah Mohrmann
Claire Bishcoff
Sarah Gregson

Chicken Satay with Hottie Peanut Sauce

Peanut Sauce

6 cloves garlic                                                                    

½ onion                                                                                               

1 T lemon zest                                                                  

½ t minced ginger                                                           

½ T cilantro                                                                        

¼ T cumin                                                                            1 t Rick’s Picks Hottie juice

¼ t coriander                                                                      ½ c. chunky peanut butter

2 dried chilies                                                                     1 ½ c. coconut milk

4 Rick’s Picks Hotties                                                       2 T fish sauce

¼ t nutmeg                                                                         1 T sugar

¼ t cinnamon

Roast garlic until soft. Sauté with onion in saucepan. Toast chilies. Add chilies and rest of ingredients. Cook until heated through. Puree in blender or with an immersion blender.  

Chicken Skewers

½ cup coconut milk

¼ cup soy sauce

2 T cilantro

¼ cup Rick’s Picks Hottie Juice

1 T Sriracha

2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts

Combine ingredients and pour over chicken breasts in a shallow baking dish. Let sit overnight. Slice chicken into strips. Skewer chicken onto soaked wooden skewers and grill until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.  Serve with room temperature peanut sauce.

 

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Deep Fried Hotties and Spicy Slaw

BBQ Sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

1 onions

4 cloves garlic

2 1/2 c. tomato sauce

3/4  cup water

1/4 t. chili powder

1/2 T. red pepper flakes

3/4 cup Dijon mustard

1/2 cup Rick’s Picks Hottie juice

2 T Worcestershire

1 1/2 chipotles in adobo

¼ cup brown sugar

1 T honey

White pepper-To Taste

Salt-To Taste

2 lbs. Pork roast

Small dice the onions and sauté with garlic in olive oil until they are translucent. Add remaining ingredients. Combine and heat through. Blend with immersion blender. 

Add ¾ of the BBQ sauce to a slow cooker with the pork roast. Turn on Low and let simmer for 8-12 hours, occasionally pulling meat apart and adding more sauce if needed.

Deep Fried Hotties

1 qt. Canola oil

32 Rick’s Picks Hottie slices

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups cornmeal

1T Kosher salt

Heat Oil to 375˚ F. Pat Pickles slices dry. Mix cornmeal and salt. Dip pickles in buttermilk then cornmeal mixture, repeat. Fry until golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Spicy Slaw

½ cup Vegetable oil

¼ cup Rice vinegar

2 T Sesame oil

1 ½ T Fresh ginger

2 t. Soy sauce

2 T. Rick’s Picks Hottie Juice

1 T Sriracha

6 cups thinly sliced Napa cabbage

6 Green onions cut on a diagonal

6 oz. Snow peas thinly sliced

1 lg. Red bell pepper thinly sliced

½ cup Toasted peanuts

Whisk together first 7 ingredients.  Toss with vegetables until coated. Top with crushed peanuts. Season with salt and pepper. Cut 8 ciabatta rolls in half. Broil until lightly toasted. Top with a generous portion of pulled pork and 4 to 5 deep fried Hotties. Serve with Spicy Slaw on side.

 

Spicy Chocolate Cupcakes with Candied Hotties

1 cup Butter

1 ½ cups Sugar

3 Eggs

1 t. Vanilla

2 cups sifted all purpose flour

1 t. Baking  Powder

1 t. Soda

¼ t. Salt

½ cup Cocoa powder

1 cup Rick’s Picks Hottie Juice

12 oz Rick’s Picks Hotties- patted dry and chopped fine

Cream butter and sugar until combined and light in color.  Add eggs and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together. Add alternately to butter mixture with Hottie Juice. Stir in pickles. Fill paper lined muffin tins 2/3 full and bake at 350˚F for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes clean.

Spicy Ganache

4 oz. Heavy cream

4 oz. Dark Chocolate

1 t. Sriracha

Heat heavy cream in a saucepan until it just starts to boil. Take off heat and add chocolate and Sriracha. Let sit 2 minutes and whisk together.

Candied Pickles

24 Ricks Pick’s Hottie slices

8 oz. Sugar

8 oz. Water

Extra water for blanching

Combine sugar and first quantity of water and bring to a simmer.  Boil about 2 cups of water in a saucepan. Add pickle slices and boil for three minutes. Transfer to simmering sugar water. Keep at a simmer and let pickles cook for two hours, let drain on a cooling rack. Dip cupcakes in warm ganache and top with a candied pickle slice.

 

Rick’s Picks Does The Texas Nine-Step

I’m headed down for a round of demos in Texas over the next four days.  I’m starting at the Whole Foods flagship store in Austin.   And then we’re going back again for Thrill Of The Grill, Central Market’s flagship BBQ event.     For Thrill Of The Grill, I’ll be getting some help from my friends at JP Marketing in San Antonio and Dallas,  and I’ll be covering Austin and Houston myself.  Here is our schedule, and it’s a total of nine demos… you’ve heard of the Texas Two-Step… well, we are making it a nine-step dance.   We’d love it if you came and said hi.  We’ll be focusing on the low sodium BBQ treats we call The Pickle Essentials.

4/28
Whole Foods Market – Lamar (525 N. Lamar Blvd., 78703)  3 PM-7 PM

4/29
Central Market – Dallas (5750 E. Lovers Lane, 75206) 11 AM-7 PM
Central Market – Fort Worth (4651 West Freeway, 76107) 11 AM-7 PM
Central Market – Austin Westgate (4477 S. Lamar, 78745) 11 AM-7 PM

4/30
Central Market – Plano (320 Coit Road, 75075) 11 AM-7 PM
Central Market – South Lake (1425 East Southlake Blvd., 76092) 11 AM-7 PM
Central Market – San Antonio (4821 Broadway, 78209) 11 AM-7 PM
Central Market – Austin Lamar (4001 N. Lamar, 78756) 11 AM-7 PM

5/1
Central Market – Houston (3815 Westheimer, 77027) 11 AM-7 PM

Hope to see you there!

Szechuan Pickled Carrots

There’s precious little time these days for pickle experimentation, what with the pesky time-consuming issues of actually running a pickle company.   That’s why I was excited when my buddy Robert of New Amsterdam Market asked us to make something we don’t usually make for his Spring benefit.   We agreed on carrots.   And since I’d been wanting to play with Szechuan peppercorns for some time now, they became the flavor profile driver.

Each one of these tiny beauties is bursting with superstar aromatics.

Fortunately for me, Berkeley, California was in the house in the form of Cousin Richard, who is a mean chef in his own right (you haven’t been alive until you’ve had his braised artichokes).   Richard was excited about the Szech peps as you can see.

Both Cousin Richard and the Szechuan peppercorns have what they call "a good nose".

Luckily, I own two carrot peelers so Richard and I were able to work through 15 pounds of carrots lickety split.   We took the mortar and pestle to the Szech peps and gave them a churning half-grind.

Doing the grind.

We sliced some fresh garlic into wafers to give things a bit more dimension, but after that, it felt like the right move to limit the secondary notes and keep things simple.   The strong, clear flavor of the carrots and the dynamic pungency of the peppercorns is a good basis for a first pass at the idea.

It's brine time.

We processed the jars minimally (6 minutes) to keep the crispy crunch of the carrots.  The aroma of the brine was simply intoxicating.  In their finished form, the carrots were remarkably still carrot-like.  The brine had a surprisingly subtle impact.   And yet the light touch still left a tingle on the tongue.    I think a cocktail application is the next step.

Paul Travels In Style

Paul is our neighbor here on the 6th floor of 195 Chrystie Street (the home office, if you don’t know).   He works with cool musicians like John Doe and Jill Sobule and now it appears he’s branching out into photography and travel, all at once.   Paul sent us this snapshot from his trip to Paris.   Note the sporty reusable Rick’s Picks bag, no doubt filled with croissants, cornichons and other delectables.  If you’d like one of our bags to shlep your stuff in style, just give us a shout here at 212 358 0428.

Paul knows how to bag it, or should I say, "baguette".

Next Level Pickle Moves on Jimmy Fallon

In our second installment on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Eats,  we decided to show Jimmy’s people some of the interesting applications for your Rick’s Picks pickles.  First off are Smokra Roll-Ups… our personal favorite way to wolf down Smokra while getting a nice bit of protein:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/230024/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-late-night-eats-smokra-roll-ups

Also enjoy tips on how to get the most out of your pickles even after the pickles and brine are long gone:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/230023/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-late-night-eats-maximizing-your-brine

Thanks, Jimmy, for helping us get the message out!

Raising A Glass Of Cheer For 7 Years

We’re wrapping up a week of celebrations for our 7th anniversary tonight by celebrating with one of our old friends… Jimmy Carbone of Jimmy’s No. 43.   It’s going to be a low-key affair… I don’t even know what the 7th anniversary is (tin? paper?) but I do know it will include some tasty microbrews and pickles.

James Carbone, aka Jimmy

4 plus 3 is 7.    4 followed by 3 is 43, so by the left-brain logic that animates all the best things we do, it’s fitting we are at Jimmy’s tonight.   We’ll be there from 5 to 8 PM, at 43 East 7th street, between 2nd and 3rd.

Our Wednesday Greenmarket Spot Is Changing

Most people start their year on January 1st.   Banks and fancy financial folks have different start dates for their fiscal years.   GrowNYC, the parent organization for Greenmarket, starts the year on April 1st, which makes sense, when you think that this time of year is when things start to bloom, sprout and get their green on.

And since the Parks Department has restructured Greenmarket’s space a bit, we are on the move.   Just about twenty feet farther South, right at 15th street, and on the Union Square West side of the walkway.    I’m always amazed when we shift positions slightly and people say WHERE WERE YOU?   YOU WEREN’T THERE!   Yes we were, and are.   On Saturdays we’ll still be in the Northwest corner of the market.  Smiling and selling pickles.   See you there!

Smiling and selling pickles.

We’re Making Pickles with Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Eats

We went up to the studio kitchen at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon recently and showed the Late Night folks a few of our tricks.   Jimmy has a blog called Late Night Eats where the pieces are posted and other chefs on there include Mario Batali, David Chang and Ming Tsai, so we were psyched to do it.  We thought the guys how to make our spicy Mean Beans and also how to use them mosst effectively  in everybody’s favorite good time cocktail, the Bloody Mary.  Jimmy’s crew thought Final Four Weekend would be a good time to put this up, and we could not agree more.    Check them out!

Here’s a quick recipe for making spicy pickled beans:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/228955/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-making-pickles-with-ricks-picks

And here are the finer points of Bloody Mary optimization:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/229299/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-late-night-eats-ricks-picks-final-four-bloody-marys