A big, slightly unruly pickle board loaded with all the things I love to eat.
By Andrew Zimmern
When people come over to my house, this is exactly the kind of thing I love to put on the table. A big, slightly unruly board filled with homemade pickles, smoked fish, good cheese, mustard, rye bread and all sorts of delicious things to snack on. I don’t want to spend the whole party stuck in the kitchen, and I certainly don’t want a board that looks too perfect to eat. The secret is balancing all that rich, salty, fatty stuff with something sharp and acidic. Give people a hundred ways to make one perfect bite, and let them have at it.
The Ultimate Pickle Board
Ingredients
For the pickles:
- 1 cup homemade Green Tomato Chow Chow (recipe)
- 12 to 16 homemade Spicy Pickled Green Beans (recipe)
- 1 cup Annette’s Pickled Beets (recipe)
- 1/2 cup pickled red onions
- 1/2 cup pickled cherry peppers
For the fresh vegetables:
- 1 bunch radishes, some left whole with their tops and others halved
- 4 tablespoons cultured butter, softened
- Flaky sea salt
- 2 to 3 baby fennel bulbs, quartered lengthwise, fronds reserved
For the fish and charcuterie:
- 6 to 8 ounces smoked trout
- 1 tin sardines
- 1 tin smoked mussels
- 4 to 6 ounces sobrasada, at room temperature
For the remaining accompaniments:
- 4 large eggs
- 6 ounces aged Gouda, Comté or clothbound cheddar
- 1/2 cup Marcona almonds
- 1/4 cup grainy Dijon mustard
- 8 to 12 slices dark rye bread
- Additional butter, for the rye bread
- 1 crisp apple or pear, sliced, or 4 to 6 fresh figs, halved
- Fresh dill and parsley, for finishing
- Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Prepare the accompaniments.
Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Carefully lower in the eggs and cook for approximately 7 minutes for jammy yolks. Transfer immediately to an ice bath. Once cooled, peel and halve the eggs. Season with flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Toast the rye bread until deeply browned and crisp. Butter some of the pieces and leave the others plain. Tear or cut the bread into irregular pieces.
Wash the radishes, leaving some whole with their tops attached and halving the others. Arrange with the cultured butter and a little flaky salt.
Quarter the baby fennel bulbs lengthwise, leaving their fronds intact when possible. Slice the apple or pear, or halve the figs.
Break the cheese into rough, irregular shards rather than cutting it into uniform cubes.
Build the board.
Select a large wooden board or platter. Position small bowls of green tomato chow chow, pickled beets and the mustard around the board, leaving plenty of open space between them.
Add the smoked trout in a large, rustic piece so guests can flake off portions as they eat. Open the tins of sardines and smoked mussels and place them on the board.
Arrange the sobrasada in a small crock or bowl. Place the cheese and jammy eggs near the fish and charcuterie.
Add the pickled green beans, pickled red onions and cherry peppers. Let some of the pickles spill naturally into the open spaces rather than containing everything in individual bowls.
Fill the remaining spaces with the radishes, fennel, Marcona almonds and fresh fruit. Tuck the toasted rye bread around the edges of the board, or serve it in a separate basket if space is limited.
Finish with fresh dill, parsley and fennel fronds. Serve, encouraging guests to build their own combinations.
