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top part intact, and dunk it in the sauce a few times. Even this brief contact transfers enough stinging
capsaicin to the dish to give it piquancy but not extreme heat. Mexicans call it "walking the chili
through the sauce."
To reduce the piquancy of a hot dried chili, add vinegar to the hot water you soak it in at the
ratio of 2 tablespoons vinegar to 1 cup water.
One-day pickled pepper
Pickles are universal favorites but good commercial pickles are as uncommon as fresh
peaches in January. Home pickling today is just as rare and not all home-cured vegetables make
good pickles, either. Pickling is time-consuming, the results may be unpredictable, the jars take
precious storage space and most pickles take many months before you can relish them. Besides,
good pickling is hard to learn because you do it so rarely. You only know the results months later,
so testing over and over again until just right is not like taste-testing fresh-cooked tomato sauces.
But some vegetables pickle rather fast. The process is not the same as long-term pickling but
the flavor is quite close. This one-day pickle is really very good, and requires minimal effort. It
beats just about any commercially pickled peppers you ever tried.
Ingredients
3
cups water
¾
¼
4
cup cider vinegar
cup sugar
teaspoons salt
2
teaspoons pickling spices
1¼-1½ pounds (570 to 680 g) bell peppers, cleaned, seeded, cut into strips (for color, use
one red bell)
1
1
clove garlic, peeled
hot chili, a slit cut into one side
Procedure
. Heat water, cider vinegar, sugar, salt and pickling spices in a pot large to accommodate all
1
the peppers on high heat. When boiling, add the peppers, bring the liquid back to boil, turn the heat
low and let the peppers simmer in the covered pot for 5 minutes.
2. Remove the pot from heat, add garlic and chili, cover and let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Place peppers, garlic and chili in a one-quart jar, pour hot liquid over until the peppers are
covered. Place the lid on and let peppers marinate for one day on your counter, then refrigerate.
They are ready to eat in a day. These pickles keep well for several weeks in the refrigerator.
Makes 1 quart pepper pickles.
TASTINGS Measuring guide
¨
1 tablespoon ground medium-hot chili is about equal to 1 ancho, mulato or
pasilla chili.
¨
¼ teaspoon of ground cayenne or other very hot chili is equal to 2 cayenne or
play © erdosh 151
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