Thursday 3 January 2019

Flatbread made with brine

what to do with leftover brine


Do you love pickles? What do you do with the leftover brine?
Many Russians swear by pickle brine's ability to help with the hangovers. The brine with a right balance of sweet, salty and sour, with herbs and bits of garlic or chilli pepper adds a nice touch to a soup. You can use it as a liquid for fermenting more vegetables, of course, in a sort of never-ending pickle, just keep adding chopped vegetables and weigh them down for another portion of pickled goodness.

I also discovered recently that you can make tasty flatbread with it. Now that I never knew, until I came across a recipe for flatbread made with brine on a Russian site Povarionok (lit. Little chef).
I receive a daily newslwetter from this site, with 5 selected recipes of the day.
Many recipe posts make me smile, especially when the poster is over-the-top, complimenting their own cooking talents, like "Nobody, absolutely nobody, will be able to resist it", or claim a recipe to be an authentic Italian recipe and use a soured cream or cultured milk drink like kefir (yes, such authentic Italian ingredients).
From time to time there are real gems of recipes and ideas, which I add to my "Recipes to try" bookmarked list.

The original author uses measurements like 1 glass of flour. Since I have no idea how much flour is in 1 glass (it's not the equivalent of the American cup), I used approximate measurements.

what to do with leftover brine


Flatbread with brine
Ingredients:
225ml brine from pickles
300+g plain flour
1/2tsp baking soda
6tbsp olive oil

Mix 3tbsp of oil with brine, and sift in the flour and baking soda. Mix well.
The recipe suggests adding a pinch of salt or sugar, depending on the taste of the brine. The one I used was sweet & sour enough, so I didn't add any sugar or salt.
The dough should be soft and pliable.
Dust your hands with flour and divide the dough into three parts, roll them into a semblance of balls and let rest in the covered bowl for about half an hour.
OK, it might look like Paul Hollywood's nightmare, but don't deride it for its looks.



Then flatten each dough ball into a flatbread. Heat up 1tbsp of oil (per flatbread) on a small to medium sized frying pan, and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side.

what to do with leftover pickle brine


And that's it, such an easy and useful recipe. I am going to experiment with different types of brine.

The one I used was from the Polish cucumber preserves/dill pickles which I bough in the local Polish deli. I find many British pickles to be too vinegary, but I obviously cannot generalise.


I ate it with honey for breakfast, and it was lovely.

what to do with leftover brine

Adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews.


1 comment:

  1. Wow, that's an ingredient I'd never even thought of reusing - I just throw it away when all the pickles have gone ! This looks lovely though, and very simple to make, so I'll have to give it a try :)

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