Friday, July 18, 2014

{Handmade} PERFECTLY PALEO PICKLED PEPPERS

Perfectly Paleo. Perfectly quick. Perfectly easy. Perfectly delicious. You must give them a try!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PERFECTLY PALEO PICKLED PEPPERS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yield:

2 pints


Experiment Length:

10 minutes + overnight rest


Materials:

6 jalapeños, sliced to desired thickness (I did 0.25 inch slices) 

1 each yellow, red, & orange bell peppers, sliced in about 0.33333 infinity and beyond! inch strips and halved. (The halved strips are easier to pack into jar halved. Leave in long strips if you like though.)

2 pint-size jars--canning, store-bought salsa, or pickled jalapeño 

Pickling Liquid for both variations of pickled peppers, half for only one variation:

.5 c filtered water
0.75 c apple cider vinegar
1 tsp sea salt
heaping 0.25 tsp peppercorns
0.5 lemon


Procedure:
Sauté bell peppers in 1 tbs. olive oil in a skillet for a five minutes until slightly browned and bubbly. Only stir/flip every couple minutes to allow the "flavor in the brown"...on that note: don't you just love Carla Hall from the Chew? End of side note. Okay, where were we? Oh yes...

Fill/pack jalapeños into one jar. I used an old store-bought pickled jalapeno jar I had saved...how perfect. Set aside.



Remove bell pepper strips from skillet & fill/pack into a second jar.



In browned bits of bell pepper skillet, (if only doing jalapeños, you can just heat up 0.5 tbs olive oil in a small skillet & proceed) heat the water, vinegar, salt, pepper, and lemon juice & half (just throw it on in the jacuzzi) over medium-high. Once the mixture comes up to a slight boil, turn off heat & ladle into canning jars. Fill until the peppers are completely submerged. 


Rest lids on top of jars (don't twist on) & cool on counter overnight and up to 3 days. Refrigerate & enjoy! 


Results:

Perfectly delicious! We had with dinner on top of salad. Excited to try them in tuna salad next.


Discussion:

Remove seeds & membranes for milder pickles. Some (me) like it hot! Some, not. :-( That's okay...just remove 'em.

The hot pickling liquid will slightly cook the jalapeño slices, turning them from bright green to muted yellow-green. I chose to keep them raw versus sautéing to maintain maximum crunch. If you prefer a milder, roasted flavor, sauté in skillet after removing bell pepper strips.

Some ideas on how to use...

Great topper for salads, baked potatoes, eggs, fish, steak, in tuna or chicken salad, and more!


How would you use these perfect pickled peppers?