Pickled Hot Peppers with Garlic and Herbs for Winter
I decided to make pickled hot peppers to put up for the winter. In the Caucasus they say, “Nothing warms the body and soul on a cold day like a spicy appetizer.” I've tried pepper appetizers well beyond the Caucasus, though. Hot chili pods are pickled everywhere this vegetable grows.
In Bulgaria, one of the best spicy appetizers is fried hot peppers, which they call “lyuti chushki.” A hellishly hot, incredibly tasty dish. It goes perfectly with a good grape rakia. And here at home too, whenever we celebrate something with friends, we always order pickles: pickled plums, garlic, hot peppers.
Hot pepper (chili pepper, chile, hot chili) is the fruit of a tropical plant (though it grows in vegetable gardens almost everywhere) known to science as Capsicum frutescens or Capsicum annuum. Hot pepper lovers rarely stop to think how hot the pepper they're about to eat will be. As a rule, it comes as a surprise.
In temperate latitudes hot peppers don't grow year-round, so to keep them for winter, they're pickled or dried. Dried hot pepper pods are widely used in cooking. Whole pods go into various main dishes, sauces and spicy soups. Coarsely ground pods are used as a hot seasoning.
There are many varieties of red hot pepper in the world, and their heat is measured on a special scale devised by the American chemist Wilbur Scoville.
Contrary to popular belief, red pepper is used quite moderately in the Caucasus, although it's part of the spice pastes and sauces common there: adjika, satsebeli, satsivi, bazhe, tkemali and so on. Pickling peppers is easy. What matters is choosing the right herbs and marinade and blanching the peppers just right. You can pickle bell peppers the same way.
Ingredients
1 jar (300 ml)
- Red hot peppers 6-10
- Cilantro 3 sprigs
- Dill 3 sprigs
- Mint (optional) 1 sprig
- Garlic 1 head
- Grape vinegar 100 ml
- Salt, sugar, coriander seeds, cloves, black peppercorns, allspice berries, bay leaf to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Pickled hot peppers will be perfect if the peppers are fully ripe: deep red, with no green or brown streaks. Long pods, not necessarily straight, with green stems. Ideally, picked straight from the plant just before pickling.
- Pick all the leaves off the cilantro, mint and dill sprigs and remove the tough stems; they aren't used in the marinade. They're coarse and pretty much inedible even after pickling. Don't chop the herbs either; it's better to use the leaves whole.
- Separate the garlic into cloves without peeling them. By the way, the pickled garlic cloves will make a great appetizer too, alongside the pickled hot peppers. Really, you can add even more garlic if you like.
- Wash the pepper pods and pierce them right through with a thin knife near the stem, otherwise air will stay trapped inside during pickling. Put the pods in a pot and cover with boiling water. Leave the peppers covered for 5 minutes, then drain and pour boiling water over them again. Repeat 3-4 times. The peppers should be blanched, not boiled. It's important that the pods turn soft but by no means fall apart into mush.
- You can do it differently. Put the peppers in a ceramic pot, which holds heat very well, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook the peppers for 2-3 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave the peppers covered for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, wash a glass jar of the right size: all the peppers need to fit, with a little room left for the garlic, herbs and marinade. Be sure to scald the jar with boiling water from the kettle for at least 5 minutes, or sterilize it any way you like.
- Pour 1 1/2 cups of cold water into a saucepan. Add to the water:
– 1 tsp salt
– 2 tsp sugar
– 2 tsp coriander seeds
– 5-6 black peppercorns
– 2-3 allspice berries
– 1-2 cloves
– 2-3 bay leaves
– all the garlic cloves
– all the prepared herbs - Bring the marinade to a boil and pour in 100 ml grape vinegar, made from white or red grapes. Better not to use plain distilled vinegar, or the aroma will be lost. Boil the marinade for 2-3 minutes, then take the pan off the heat and let the marinade stand for 15 minutes.
- Put all the herbs and garlic from the marinade at the very bottom of the sterilized jar. Carefully lift the blanched hot peppers out of the pot, trying not to damage them, and lay them in the jar. Blanched pods bend easily, so packing them isn't hard. When all the pods are in the jar, pour in the marinade, making sure all the coriander seeds, peppercorns, allspice and cloves end up in the jar.
- Gently press the pepper pods down inside the jar with the blunt end of a fork, trying to keep them whole and squeeze out as much air as possible. Top up the jar with marinade right to the brim, as much as fits. Any leftover can be discarded. Seal the jar with a lid immediately. Wrap the jar of pickled hot peppers in a warm blanket and leave until completely cool.
- Pickled hot peppers can be stored outside the fridge. Jars with screw-on lids are very handy: you can keep an “everyday” jar in the fridge and take peppers out as needed.
| Serves: | 1 jar (300 ml) |
| Calories: | 21 |
| Prep: | 15 mins |
| Cook: | 30 mins |
| Total: | 45 mins |
| Category: | Snacks and Sauces |
| Cuisine: | Caucasian cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.9
(5)
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