By Late July and I have been thinking about something Babcia Rose said during our visit last month — not around forever — in the background way that sentences like that settle into you and wait. She is 87 and sharp and still making pierogi and also she is 87. I called her Tuesday just to talk, no specific reason, and she seemed pleased by the no-reason call. We talked for forty minutes about her childhood in Poland, which she has been talking to me about more in the last few years, in pieces, like she is choosing what to pass along while she still can.
She told me about a dish her mother made when they could not afford much else: potato soup with dill, which is basically potatoes cooked in water with onion and finished with dill and a swirl of sour cream. She described it in detail — the color of the broth, the way the dill smelled, the size of the pot her mother used. I wrote it down while she talked. Then I made it after we hung up. It was simple and specific and tasted like a story about a woman I never met whose granddaughter I know well.
I wrote that up for the blog not as a recipe post but as a narrative one — the phone call, the story, the soup. The response was the largest single-day readership I have ever had on the blog. People writing about their own grandmothers, their own passed-down recipes, their own phone calls before it is too late. That sentence — before it is too late — appeared in more than one comment and I sat with it for a while.
Ryan read the post and said it was the best thing I had ever written. I said it was her story. He said it is also yours now. He is right. That is how it works. You receive it and you carry it and eventually you pass it along. That is the whole thing.
After that phone call I kept thinking about what it means to preserve something — a recipe, a story, a voice on the other end of a line. Babcia Rose’s soup was about making something from almost nothing and holding it carefully, and that feeling sent me to the kitchen looking for a way to do the same. These pickled mushrooms with garlic are the kind of thing she would have made in late summer when the market was generous, something to keep, something to open later and taste the season in — and right now that is exactly what I needed to make.
Pickled Mushrooms with Garlic
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 25 min + chilling | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 lb fresh button or cremini mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
- 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 2 sprigs fresh dill
- 1 bay leaf
Instructions
- Blanch the mushrooms. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add mushrooms and cook for 3–4 minutes until just tender. Drain and set aside to cool slightly.
- Make the brine. In a small saucepan, combine vinegar, water, salt, sugar, peppercorns, and red pepper flakes if using. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until salt and sugar dissolve. Remove from heat.
- Layer the jar. Place the dill sprigs and bay leaf in the bottom of a clean quart jar or bowl. Add the blanched mushrooms and sliced garlic in alternating layers.
- Add oil and brine. Drizzle olive oil over the mushrooms, then pour the warm brine over everything, making sure mushrooms are fully submerged.
- Chill and rest. Let the jar cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Flavor deepens overnight and keeps well for up to one week in the refrigerator.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 65 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Carbs: 4g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 310mg