Even I was a little frightened and for lack of a better plan I was going to simply slice and pickle them, saving them to top off sandwiches when the mood arises, maybe add them to a Martini for an interesting flavor twist. But, although I've been wanting to pickle something for the blog for a long time, I just couldn't bring myself in this case. It felt a little bit like a cop-out. Too easy. So after some time on The Google Machine, and the purchase of a brand new canning kit, I decided to turn this:
Into a sweet and spicy relish. Yum!
The first thing to do was to seed and roughly chop all the Peppers. I started with the least deadly of the three.
and cut them into about 1 inch pieces.
Next I sliced my Jalapenos in half
Got them de-seeded and chopped. Remember, safety first with Hot Peppers, wear gloves and eyeglasses if you have them. It is probably also wise to wear longer sleeves. I swear the Hot Pepper juice can burn your skin on contact.
Finally on to the Green Fingerlings which were also seeded and given a rough chop.
I then seeded eight small Tomatoes (the recipe called for medium size Roma's but I didn't have those so I went with six small everyday Tomatoes) and gave them a quick chop. To seed a Tomato cut them in half and give them a good squeeze. Most of the seeds and juices will come right out.
Finally I also chopped up three small Onions. I had two Texas Stars and one Red Onion left over from prior boxes. They are no longer left over.
Everything went for a party in Tyler.
8-10 pulses later
The next step was to drain the mixture. The recipe I was using suggested a fine mesh strainer. I only had cheese cloth. So I wrung it out as best I could with my bare hands, covering them with pepper juice.
In my defense, I never follow my own advice. But once covered in pepper juice, it's important to remember that not all hope is lost. You are, however, going to wash your hands in alcohol. Rubbing Alcohol is probably best but since we don't have that in the house, I used Gin.
Final step was to add the apple cider vinegar, and the sugar and bring everything to a boil for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile I prepared 2 jars for canning. Pulling them out of the boiling water was much easier with the help of my brand new Jar Tongs.
Also easier was filling them with my brand new Jar Funnel.
Unless of course you accidentally over fill them.
The final result:
THE VERDICT:
Sweet, spicy and a perfect contrast to the salty bite of the hot dog. This is definitely delicious. The Husband's verdict? Unknown, I ate alone that night, and enjoyed every bite. I would recommend this recipe, it was crazy easy and a great way to get rid of a ton of peppers if you happen to have a surplus. I gave one jar to my grandfather (who eats hot dogs very often) and the other I'm saving for the nearest BBQ. I'm just going to sit here and wait for my inbox to fill with invites.... any minute now.
The Recipe:
Recipe credit goes to shirleywny5 over at Gardenweb.com and can be found HERE.
- 5 med bell peppers
- 5 jalapenos
- 3 assorted green, yellow or red hot peppers
- 6 small tomatoes
- 3 small onion. Any kind will do.
- 1 cups Apple Cider vinegar
- 1.5 cups granulated sugar
- Remove seeds and membrane from all the peppers (leave in the seeds and membranes on the hot peppers if you want more spice, just be careful). Give everything a rough chop.
- Rough Chop the onions.
- Seed and Rough Chop the Tomatoes.
- Process in the food processor until a fine mince is achieved (8-10 pulses)
- Drain off liquid.
- Place the mixture into the cooking pot and add sugar and vinegar. Cook over medium heat until thick as you like. Usually 30 or 45 minutes is plenty.
- Ladle into jam jars and seal.
- Process 20 minutes in Hot water bath.
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