Recipe: Pickled Pepperoncini

Pepperoncinis are one of our favorite peppers. Should you decide you'd like to grow your own, be prepared for gazillions of peppers. The plants are prolific! I only have two this year and we have so many pepperoncinis...Mr. Big Food went looking for a recipe to make pickled pepperoncinis as you would find on an ante-pasta try. He found one on eHow!

I disagree with Morgan O'Conner (below), though. On the Scoville scale, which measures pepper "heat," pepperoncinis come in at 100-500. Bell peppers are 0; pimento, 100-500; Scotch Bonnet habaneros, 100,000 - 325,000; police grade pepper spray, 5,300,000. (From Chiliworld.com)

“Pepperoncini, part of the pepper family, can add some heat to your dishes. They are not as spicy as many other peppers, so they are a good choice for those who do not enjoy extremely spicy food. You can stuff them, add them to soups and sandwiches, incorporate them into soups and stews, and even eat them plain. Pepperoncini are most often pickled rather than used plain. Pickling your own pepperoncini is a relatively simple process that can help you enjoy these peppers for months to come.”—Morgan O’Connor, eHow contributor

Recipe: Pickled Jalapeno Peppers

Because you can never have enough!

PICKLED JALAPENO PEPPERS

1 lb jalapeno peppers

Boiling water (to blanch peppers)

1 small onion, chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil

½ Tbsp fresh garlic, chopped

Dash basil

Dash oregano

Dash thyme

Boiling brine solution: 1 pint 5% vinegar, 1 pint water, 2 Tbsp sugar, 5 Tbsp salt

Poke a small hole in each jalapeno, then blanch for 4 minutes in boiling water. (The holes keep the peppers from collapsing.) Drain and pack peppers into a hot pint canning jar. Before the peppers cool, add onion, garlic, basil, oregano, thyme, and olive oil to jar. Pour in boiling brine solution. (Ideally, you will have this mixture begin to boil as you begin to blanch your peppers.) Cap the jar tight and boil in a boiling water for 15 minutes. Allow to cool on racks, and refrigerate or store.

Recipe: Hot Pickled Okra

Thanks to this recipe and a couple of others, we are finally making our way through the hot pepper pods I grew and dried about five years ago!

This recipe is easily made smaller if you don't have six pounds of okra. It's so easy, you can do the math in your head!

HOT PICKLED OKRA

Makes 10 pints

6 lbs young okra, washed

1 ½ quarts white vinegar

1 ½ quarts water

½ C salt (canning or pickling preferred)

10-20 hot pepper pods

10 garlic cloves, halved

Boil white vinegar, water, and salt for 10 minutes. Pack okra into hot pint jars with 1 pepper pod and 1 clove garlic in each jar. Pour boiling liquid over okra, seal jars, and process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

Recipe: Dilled Okra

Green, white and red okra!

Recipe below.

Recipe: Escabeche

Pickled jalapeño peppers

Recipe below.

Recipe: Kosher Dill Pickles II

I'm looking forward to trying these.

Recipe below.

Recipe: Chunk Pickles

A sweet bread & butter type

Recipe below.

Pascal Meets Pickling

Mr. Big Food and I put up 12 pints and three quarts of four different kinds of pickled things this afternoon. It took about four hours-- we are experienced and efficient picklers. Music was playing in the background and we seldom run out of extraneous things to chat about, e.g., poor Randy. We guess he's not even going to be playing at State Fairs any more. It's one thing to be drunk, but quite another to be publicly drunk and publicly naked all at the same time. I have no sympathy.

That said, we'd sort of reached the end of the line. We fell one ring/lid rig short. 

This is how it begins

Assemble ingredients for the various pickles types. Take a photo. Later, play with photo.

Wash okra for Dilled Okra

Saute jalapenos, carrots, onions, oregano and other things for Escabeche

"I'm a good dog. I know better than to go into the kitchen on pickling day."