Pickled Jalapenos

Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 10:50:19 EDT
From: dgarland@cdplus.com

Pickled Jalapenos

In response to the question how to preserve Jalapenos (or any other
chile). The following is the recipe I obtained originally from my cooking
class in high school in Mexico, but I made some modifications because the
chiles were allways too cooked. As to how tro dry chiles, that is a question
that can be answered only by experimenting, since as a mexican I am use to
find any kind of chiles any time in the market very cheap, and I would
think most of the mexicans wouldn't know how to dry them.... Any way, I have
a very good recipe for chipotles (dry jalapenos) once I am able to understand
how this system works... Please note that I don't give the exact amounts
because they would vary depending on what you want to get, but keep in mind
that the important thing always would be the spices.

Fresh chiles (jalapenos or serranos)
Carrots
Coliflower (I use one head only)
Onions
Garlic (1/4 of a head per jar)
The following spices on each jar:
1 or 2 Bay entire leaves
2 cloves
2 or 3 pepper corms
1 little piece of cinnamon
1/4 tsp of mustard seed
salt
white vinegar (I use like 1/2 galon for eight 1 pint jars).

Slice the carrots in rounds. Brake the coliflower in small pieces and
cut the onions in chunks. I cut garlics in such a way that the teeth? are in
halfs. I like to use entire chiles but I always punch them with a toothpick, so
the flavor comes out. If you want you can slice them in longitudinal cuts,
which is the traditional way. I heat a little bit of oil (like 3 or 4
tablespoons) and place all the vegetables at the same time and mix everything
until all the vegetables are covered with a thin layer of oil. Then I fill the
jars with the vegetables (the jars by then already have the spices and salt).
Apart, I heat the vinegar and when it is boiling I pour it over the vegetables.
I close the jars (following the traditional preserving instructions) and let
them boil closed for 15 minutes. I let stand the pickles for at least a week.
Before coming to the states I preserved in this way like 5 jars with only fresh
"piquin chiles" and I have been using them for the last year, by adding here
the vegetables, this works wonderful, because we have had very flavorful picles
for long time. I hope you enjoy this recipe.