Friday, September 20, 2013

We Can Pickle That - Jalapeno Edition

We love pickled veggies at our house, from regular pickles to okra to jalapenos and beyond.  And, as it turns out, you can literally pickle just about anything.  My good friend Catie showed me this funny video that pretty much sums it up.

Jay has tried his hand at pickling jalapenos a couple times now, and both attempts have been successful!  The first time he did it I was out of town, and, when I came back, I ate the jalapenos numerous times thinking that they were store bought.  It did strike me as a little weird that there were big cloves of garlic floating around and that that the jalapenos were SO hot, but I never actually put it together until Jay told me a few days later that he had made them from scratch.

The pickling process, like many things we have tried, is actually surprisingly easy.  You need the following:

15 (more or less) sliced jalapenos
2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
1 cup filtered water
1 cup distilled white vinegar
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp pickling salt or kosher salt
Tumeric to taste (the world's healthiest spice - check out the health benefits here)
An empty jar
Now, here's what you do:

Step 1: Cut the tops off the jalapenos and discard them.

Step 2: Slice the jalapenos into rings. (At this point you may also want to remove some seeds if you don't like it too spicy - and it will be spicy.)

Step 3 (optional):  Sip on some whisky.  (Jay insisted this was an important part of his process.)
Step 4: In a medium saucepan, drop in two peeled and slightly crushed cloves of garlic.

Step 5:  Pour in water, vinegar, sugar, salt and bring to a boil.

Step 6: Stir until sugar and salt are both dissolved.

Step 7: Add the jalapenos into the vinegar bath.  Sprinkle in turmeric.
Step 8: Remove from heat, cover, and wait 10 to 15 minutes until you notice the jalapenos become slightly darker in color.

Step 9:  Remove the jalapenos and pack into a jar.

Step 10: Pour some of the remaining liquid on top of jalapenos.

Step 11:  Allow jar to cool, put the lid on, and put in the fridge.

Step 12: Eat!

This most recent time, Jay used jalapenos and a few Tabasco peppers that his dad gave us from his garden, and also some Mucho Nacho peppers from our own garden.  They turned out so good, but super spicy!  Be warned!

I can't wait to start pickling everything!!

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