Pickled Jalapeños

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I’ll bet that many, if not the majority of Americans get there first taste of spicy heat with pickled jalapeños. I don’t know that for a fact, but it’s a cheap way to make things spicy and most Americans have been tempted at least once in their life to get their ballpark nachos (cheese sauce and tortilla chips) with a handful of pickled jalapeños piled on top.

They were my introduction to spicy heat and I used to put them on about everything until my late twenties. That’s when excessive amounts of hot food started become uncomfortable for me to digest. I’ve found that as long as I don’t go overboard with quantity I can handle about any kind of spicy heat without being miserable a couple hours later.

I had a plate of nachos with a few pickled jalapeños recently when I decided it was time to pickle a batch of my own for a post here.

After making the brine for these I was letting it cool. While it was sitting out I got a good whiff. A few seconds later I had a couple of hard sneezes. That’s when I got exited. I knew they would be good if a breath of the brine alone could make me sneeze. As expected, they’re a great garnish for adding some heat to a dish and they have that homemade freshness to boot.

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I was happy to document and make a pickled jalapeño recipe of my own. Near the end of the summer when gardens are being harvested I’ll use this for my print column. Starting in late July, there is an abundance of fresh stuff from home gardens around. Everyone has tomatoes and cucumbers and many also have jalapeños.

This will be perfect for the paper when peppers start to get ripe.

This is the second time I have made pickled hot peppers. Years ago I made a gourmet recipe from Bobby Flay. When I was finished I had what seemed like a 30 gallon drum full of pickled serranos and jalapeños. Had I kept the jar I would still be eating them today.

Here's the irony. I made the entire batch for about two tablespoons worth of a garnish on a pork chop. I had no idea how much I was making until I was to far in to reduce the amount.

When it was all said and done I spent 8 bucks on the pork chops and $25 on the pickled pepper garnish.

You live and you learn.

Eat Well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Makes 1 quart
2 C Cider vinegar
2 C Water
3 Tbs Sugar
3 Tbs Salt
3 Tbs Peppercorns
3 cloves Garlic
1 Bay leaf
1 lb Jalapeños sliced
1/4 C Baby carrots

Make brine; pickled peppers
In a sauce pan bring vinegar, water, salt, sugar, peppercorns, garlic and by leaf to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes. Place jalapeños and carrots in a bowl, pour in hot brine. Let mixture cool to room temperature, approximately 2 hours, then transfer to a resealable jar and refrigerate for one week before serving.

Sweet Bread and Butter Pickles

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Cucumbers have begun to pile up on kitchen counters like dirty dishes at a frat house. It’s just part of the first wave of bounty surrendered by home gardens. A cucumber is delicious in a number of dishes but for most gardeners there are to many to eat all of them fresh. A great way to preserve them is by pickling, a preservation technique that dates to ancient Mesopotamia.

There are several different ways to pickle, but according to the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, sweet pickles in the Untied States took off with German immigrants known as the “Pennsylvania Dutch” who settled the countryside near Philadelphia in the early 1700s. They practiced Mennonite traditions which featured cooking that relied heavily on sweet and sour flavor combinations.

For this recipe, I make sweet pickles known as “bread and butter.” The name is said to have originated two ways - either for their compatibility with bread and butter, or for the income they brought in.

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I’ve been wanting to make bread and butter pickles for a while now, I just had to wait for cucumbers to be in season. In my family, everyone who has a garden grows them, so I knew they would be available in abundance if I just waited until the right time. Last week my brother-in-law sent a mess home with Mom which I saw as my cue.

I love bread and butter pickles more for the brine than the actual pickles themselves. I can literally drink it. The sweet and sour flavor of the juice is an amazing ingredient to add to mayo and other dressings. It’s the secret to the sauce for the Ranch BLT Dog and the New York Club Pizza, two delicious recipes that have appeared here in the past. I wanted to make the pickles for myself just to have the home-made brine to use in the future. It has a little extra spice and the flavors are more intense than store-bought pickles. I can’t wait to make a sauce out of it.

Using the brine is a little tip I picked up from Cuisine at Home magazine. I used to make two or three recipes out of every issue and would follow them exactly. Doing that taught me so much about cooking. I think it’s important for new cooks to follow recipes exactly the first time it's tried, just for the learning experience. It’s almost like taking a class from a chef and a great way to discover flavor combinations and classic techniques. I still subscribe and read Cuisine at Home, mostly now for inspiration, but I have to admit there are times where I see one of their creations and I will create it, following the recipe to the tee, just so I can taste what the developer had intended for me to actually taste.

Eat well, cook often ...