pick a peck of pickled peppers

Today I made a batch of pickled peppers. The recipe in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is called "Pickled Hot Peppers". It calls for 6 cups of banana peppers, 4 cups of jalepeno peppers, and 1 cup of serrano peppers. Banana peppers are pretty mild and I didn't have any anyway. So I did 6 cups of jalepeno peppers, nearly 4 cups of little thai hot peppers, then topped off the last cup with some serranos and a few other stray hot peppers from the garden. I also added a couple of baby ancho peppers just as a surprise bit of mellowness. While cutting the jalepenos I put a little nick in my left pinky finger with the knife. While cutting the thai hots I reached another level of consciousness through pain. This will not be a pickle for the faint of heart.

( details )

Made 5 full pints for me with 1/2 a jar of peppers left over for a quick stovetop saute. There was enough liquid that if I had another cup of peppers it would have made 6 pints.

Now to wait a month and see if they turned out alright.

Dilly Beans, batch #2, first report

I finally cracked open the first jar of Dilly Beans to see how they tasted. Of the 5 batches, batch #2 was the base batch (every other batch is one ingredient variation away from it) so I tried it first. On first tasting derien was favorable, but my first thought was "kind of bland, too little other taste means too much vinegar taste." I think perhaps it was just a bad moment for me. In subsequent tastings I've been more happy with them. The vinegar is a little strong for my taste, but the remainder of the flavors are quite balanced. I'll be interested to see what the other batches taste like. #1 has black peppercorns which were absent from the rest of the batches. #3,4,5 each double one of the spices (dill,red pepper flakes, garlic).

Even though I feel they are a little under in the flavor, I still rate this batch as a success. They're easy to eat and still have retained a bit of crisp texture in spite of the pickling. They aren't the be all and end all, but they're better than three quarters of the commercial jars I've had. There may be improvements to come, but as is it was worth the work.

when life gives you lemons

In an effort to use up some of the huge amount of ginger I bought on Saturday at the Thai market, I made Quick Lemon Ginger Marmalade. It's badly misnamed. I mean the cooking doesn't take long, but the prep is killer.

( The details )

With the peppers, the steam, the grating of litte pieces of finger ginger, the lemon, and more steam, my hands are not very happy at the moment. I think I'll stop with the cooking for tonight.

My taste tester got home. It took a minute for her to process the first sample. Her assessment, it has bite. It's good. It has bite. I tasted it as well. I like it. I don't think it's all that bitey, but maybe I just got a mild bit.

( Reminds of the chilli contest judge joke that's floated around in email forever... )