i'm totally addicted to my home made pickles, specifically dill (cucumber) pickles and pickled onions. make them yourself and they are less than a quarter the price of villa market and taste great, here's how

dill pickles:

buy the smallest, freshest cucumbers you can find. i find macro has the best selection and price.

cut the head off and soak in heavily salted water for 12-24hrs

for the picking vinegar i use cheap macro distilled white vinegar, about 50baht/gallon i think.

for dill pickles, use one part vinegar to 3 parts water. then add black and white pepper corns, mustard seed, chilli seed, cloves, bay leaf, coriander seed, salt, garlic cloves and whole small chillies..

boil the vinegar, water and spices for about 15mins

rinse the cucumbers and stuff into the jars together with the dill (pak chee lao in thai) and slowly pour in the vinegar mix (i usually remove the bay leaf first)

put in a pan of hot water and bring water to boil and hold on slow boil for 15mins. this should bring the inside of the jar up to about 85degC, check if you have thermometer

let cool and store in dark place for 2-6 weeks. this is the hard part, the temptation to try will be too strong for most mortals and once you taste them you will not be able to stop. so my advice, make about 4 big jars and then as you empty a jar, refill so you always have the well matured ones on hand.

I'd leave out the cloves and use just a small sprinkle of dill.

i do the old fashioned method:

heavily salted water with all the spices, leave out for a few days shaking daily. then refrigerate for a few days. when you reach the sourness u desire., remove 20% liquid & replace w vinegar. the salty water & vinegar are natural antiseptics unless you want to store for many months unrefrigerated....

I buy Pattaya Pickles at most groceries stores around down. Yes more expensive than making them myself, I did not retire here to grow my own vegetables if pickle my own dills, Jalapenos, sweet pickles or mixed vegetables when I can buy them pre made cheaper here than back home.

plus it gives you more time to patrol the streets.

^Surely that's Jim L Fix It?

the cukes! the cukes! where does one find the cukes? near abouts where I live down the market and at Lotus I can't find no cukes suitable for pickling...I got the big jars and the rest of the gear but no cukes...

I've done kimchee and pickled eggs OK...

^ Khlong Toei market is rammed full of 'em mate.

^ Khlong Toei market is rammed full of 'em mate.

where is Klong Toei market from soi Nana? I'll look in next time I'm in town...

Go all the way to the end and through the tobacco monopoly. You're two minutes away once you get out of it.

Go all the way to the end and through the tobacco monopoly. You're two minutes away once you get out of it.

and then tutsi stumbles along with his flaccid right leg that was disabled in a near stroke last year and sez: 'yew got some pickling cucumbers around here?'...and then the market traders start to circle and to size up to see who shall make the first strike...

I have been making my own pickles for years, and use the small Thai cukes from the local market, I see them at most of the local markets I go to.

I too did not retire to make pickles, but after trying a lot of market pickles that were very bad. I started to make my own.

A few days ago I went to many different markets in Pattaya, and ran across my favorite US pickle brand. Clausens, did not buy it did not even look at the price. I also saw some Vlasic , which I have never liked, I believe it was at Villas.

hope you find your cukes.

Cheers;

Clausens and Vlasic are passable when you an find them...I was just in NYC and 'pickle heaven' supposedly but never did see none; but it was the upper west side and maybe I was in the wrong part of town...I got a pickle in downtown Philadelphia with a pastrami on rye about 5 years ago and immediately went to pickle heaven...btw, philly pizza is miles better than NYC IMHO...

I'll try some of the local cukes if ever I see them down the local market...the big gallon pickling jars stand forlorn, covered with dust and unused...