Pickled Jalapenos

Chillies are so quick and easy to pickle.

I can't keep up with the demand for them in my household (Ok - that's all me), so my next project is to see how many jalapenos I can grow if I dedicate some garden space to them.

How to pickle jalapenos 

First, sterilise a glass jar. For these pickles, that I keep in the fridge and go through quite quickly, I simply rinse a warmed glass jar with boiling water. 

Next, put a small pot of water on to boil. Once boiling, blanch the jalapenos for 2 minutes. No more or they will lose their crunch and colour!

Rinse under some cool water, drain and when cool enough to handle cut into 5-6mm slices. Put them straight into the sterilised jar.

Bring 1 cup of white wine vinegar, 1 cup of water, 1 tbs sugar, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp of whole black pepper corns to the boil. Pour over the jalapenos and seal. Leave for a few days to develop flavour. 

I am really interested in ways to make preserving more achievable day to day, as opposed to it being a big project that takes up an entire weekend (although sometimes that is fun too!)... Pickled jalapenos are a great example of how you can preserve a small batch of produce quickly. If I have a handful of jalapenos at any time, I blanch, rinse and slice and add them to the jar in the fridge. Very easy and it means you don't have to wait to do a big batch!