Sunday, January 18, 2009

Jalapeños en Vinagre (Jalapeños in Vinegar)

In my house we love pickled, salty, pungent, spicy, and sour stuff (not something many have acquired a taste for) Pickled Jalapeño peppers are very common in Mexican cuisine as a condiment to enhance you experience eating other stuff, like it goes well with greasy and fried foods (like most acidic foods do) it helps cut through the richness and stimulates the tongue ;) It's also really healthy.

We use to buy the cans which are very popular our favorite brand for pre-made pickled Jalapeños is "GOYA- Jalapeños en Escabeche" we figured if we buy them so often and enjoy them we should just make our own in huge batches, it's cheaper, and you know exactly what quality of ingredients you used and what's in it, how old it is, etc. MUCH BETTER TO YOU HAVE CONTROL!

My mother likes to make this with other vegetables like cauliflower, carrot, garlic and onion in combination with Jalapeño Pepper. You could also add half cooked potatoes sliced into rounds very tasty in here when pickled.

Ingredients:
-3 lbs. Jalapeño Peppers washed well
-1 lbs. Cauliflower washed seperated into medium florets
-1 lbs. carrots peeled cut into diagnol ovals
-3 big onions cut into rings (not to thin)
-1 head of garlic cloves peeled (not mashed or anything like that the garlic is optional)
-4-6 tablespoons of salt
-1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
-1 1/2 tablespoons dry oregano
-1-2 sticks of cinnamon (optional)
-1/4-1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
-1/2 white vinegar 1/2 clean drinking water (enough to fill containers I ended up using 6 cups
vinegar 5 cups water I wanted more acidic)

You will need:
-1 big jar or container and one medium one

Directions:

(1)Bring in a large pot water to a boil, boil carrot until it changes color but not soft still crunchy, set aside and rinse with cold water to stop cooking, do the same thing to the cauliflower and set aside.

(2)Cut 1 pound of chiles in half this will help the pickled veggies get more spicy. The other 2 pounds leave whole with tail and all. Set chiles in a big bowl or pot, get each whole one and simply stab through it right in the center (not cut in half just one stab this is to let the vinegar flow into the chile)

(3)Heat olive oil on medium high heat in a big pan, add chiles in one layer and let it cook until the skin wrinkles nad blisters a bit on one side and the other side to DO NOT OVER COOK IT'S JUST TO LIGHTLY WRINKLE THEM! AND INFUSE THE OIL, do this in a couple batches.
(4)While frying the chiles also fry the cinnamon sticks together with the chiles to infuse the oil with cinnamon.


(6)Now put the chiles in 1 GIAGANTIC BOWL (or in 2 big bowls) and toss with carrot, cauliflower, garlic, onion, oregano, peppercorns, and salt.

(7)Put this mixture into the containers carefully.

(8)Mix vinegar, water, and oil used to fry chiles along with cinnamon stick mix well together.

(9)Pour this into the containers where you have chile mixture, seal and shake well, turn upside down and back up and shake it up, uncover taste vinegar in bottle if you think it needs more salt add more salt, cover and shake again to let salt incorporate well, if vinegar taste good and flavorful like it has enough salt then it's good, seal well and leave out 2-3 days then it's good for eating.

(10)You can leave at room temperature or in fridge it can last a couple months.

P.S.

It is normal for the garlic to turn bluish after awhile.

4 comments:

Hilda said...

Mmmmm que ricos esos jalapeños... mi marido se muere por ellos.
Yo se los compro en conserva porque aquí no se consiguen, es una pena.
Tomo nota por si algun día los encuentro.
Muchos besos

Nathan said...

Hilda,
Si no puedes conseguir Jalapeños tal ves puedas usar otra classe de chile que se encuentre en España. O tambien conseguir las semillas y plantar Jalapeños (si es te gusta la jardeneria)

Anonymous said...

I remember my mom making this for my dad too. Glad I stumbled upon your blog. It seems that you feature some of my long lost favorites!

Anonymous said...

Nathan-You have all the recipes I've been craving! Patas de res, chicharron, jalapenos en escabeche...mmm. I love your blog, the format is very clear and the pictures have me drooling. I'm in love!!!

Hilda, puedes comprar semillas de jalapenos por internet. O en europa es mas sencillo ir a los mercados asiaticos, compra chiles verdes frescos, pero quitales las semillas antes de prepararlos porque son muy picantes---usa guantes, ya que el aceite del chile es muy irritante. Saludos.