Red hot birthdays...

So, many of my friends are next to impossible to shop for... either because they have esoteric tastes that they just satisfy for themselves, or expensive tastes that I can't afford, or the irritating habit of never "needing" or "wanting" anything...

My friend Linus is like that, but this year I have the perfect gift. I like cooking (you may have noticed)... or in this case canning... so at first I was going to make him pickles, my garlic refrigerator pickles... because pretty much all the pickles available in Korea are sweet pickles and he hates sweet pickles (so do I, for that matter). But I soon realized/remembered that I couldn't get dill at my local supermarket. So, no dill pickles. But then I had it... You see Linus likes spicy food, so I decided that I would pickle some peppers instead. Peppers are very available at my supermarket.


I checked out Punk Domestics, my favorite canning site and that led me to this recipe for pickled peppers. I, of course, had to change a few things... for one thing my kitchen is metric now, so some math was called for... and my jars were a different size - more math... and I ended up not having as many peppers - math... but perhaps most distressingly, there was no garlic in the recipe and that simply wouldn't do... so, my version!

Pickled Hot Pepper Rings

(adapted from Marisa McClellan)

yield: makes 4 - 250mL jars, active time 30-45 minutes (I'm not sure how long it took me to cut up the peppers), total time 48 hours

Ingredients...

•              335 g chopped hot peppers (about 3 cups)

•              6-7 cloves of garlic, sliced

•              150 mL red wine (grape) vinegar

•              200  mL rice vinegar

         (a total of about 1 ½ cups vinegar)

•              350 mL water (about 1 ½ cups)

•              22 g pickling salt (1 ½  tablespoons)

What I did...

• Sterilize the jars, whatever method you use - here I boil, because I have no oven.
• Chop, slice, smell the yumminess!!!
• Combine vinegar, water and salt in a pot and bring it to a boil.
• When brine is boiling, add pepper rings and garlic, and stir to submerge.
• As soon as the brine returns to a boil, remove the pot from the heat.
• Spoon peppers into jars and top them off with brine, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top.
• Tap jars gently to remove any trapped air bubbles. If necessary, add more brine to return the headspace to 1/2 inch.
• Wipe rims, apply lids and rings and process jars in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes (start your timer when the water returns to a boil, not when the jars first go in) - this is approximately three Enrique Iglesias songs and 7 text messages, in case you forget the timer... not that I would ever do that...
• When time is up, remove jars from the water and let cool on a folded kitchen towel.
• When jars are cool enough to handle, test the seals and tighten the lids.
• Store jars in a cool, dark place. They are ready to eat with in 48 hours, but can be kept up to one year.