Pickled spicy carrots

This week I found myself elbows deep in carrots. They were just everywhere! So, I decided that it was time we went on an adventure; and what better way to do that than with a pickle?! 

This recipe was influenced from a spicy Thai beef dish I did at The White Dog Café in Philadelphia. It's not the exact recipe at all, but I really like taking something sweet and turning it spicy. The complexity that results just dances across your palate. 

As mentioned before in previous posts (sweet-pickled jalapenos) pickling is a method of preservation that can extend the shelf life for months in an opened jar – even longer if it’s sealed properly. So this was my go-to method for utilizing these carotenoid packed roots.

This recipe calls for the hot pickling method (as opposed to a cold pickle) because the heat from the liquid not only preserves it through the acidity, but it blanches the product in the jar. I’ve found this to be beneficial with whatever I’m pickling that has the color red, orange, or yellow. You’ll see that once the heat is applied that the color intensifies and becomes super bright.

So what do you do with spicy pickled carrots?

Glad you asked!

To start off, simply add them with some pickled red onion and pickled Anaheim peppers to create a little pickled veggie salad. Toss in your favorite oil (make it Asian and use sesame!) to coat it; and season to taste. It’s not necessary to add anything to it though, they’re fantastic by themselves.

You can also serve these on the side or on the top of a dish; I’ve been favoring it with my eggs lately. I’ve found that they really bring out some wonderful characteristics when matched with a grilled or seared piece of beef or fish.

I would encourage you to substitute them in stir fry’s or any hot recipe where you see carrots. The vinegar, spices, and salt will provide a flavorful base for you to build off of.

TIP: If you add these at the beginning, they will break down further and caramelize. The vinegar will also reduce and become sweet. However, if you add them at the end of the cooking process, they will maintain their integrity and brightness and bring a little pop to the dish.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons pickling spice

2 Dried chiles

2 Tablespoons sea (or pink Himalayan) salt

¼ cup white vinegar

1 Tablespoon sugar in the raw (or honey)

2 cups water

3 carrots (shaved)

Directions:

1. In a medium sized saucepot or small pot, slightly toast the pickling spice and chilies on a medium heat. You should be able to start to smell the aromatics when it’s ready
2. Add your vinegar and water to the pot.
3. Add salt and sugar to the liquid and bring to a boil.
4. While the liquid is waiting to boil, shave your carrots down with a vegetable peeler. I took the top layer of skin off of them, then continued to shave down until there was hardly anything left.
5. Place the shaved roots in a jar. Place that jar on top of a dishtowel or something soft to act as a barrier with the counter and to catch any spills.
6. Once boiling, strain the liquid into a container and then pour it into the jar with the carrots. You can also strain right from the pot into the jar (if you feel so brave to do so).
7. Put the lid on your jar and pop it in the fridge. Allow to sit for at least 8 hours (ideally overnight) before using.

Sweet-Pickled Jalapenos

One of my favorite flavor combinations is sweet and hot; so what better thing to do than sweet-pickle some hot peppers? I chose to use Jalapeno peppers here because I know a lot of people grow them and around this time they are super abundant.

If you’re into jarring/canning things, this is something I would suggest highly. They also make great gifts when transferred to mason jars. Keep in mind though that the shelf life probably won’t be more than a few months – if that.

I haven’t really experimenting into how long these pickles last before they spoil. I can tell you from the restaurant industry that refrigerated pickled vegetables can last up to four or five months if kept properly. The key is to keep the pickled whatever under the liquid so it doesn’t get a chance to grow mold on it.

One industry tip for doing this is putting a plate on top of the product to keep it submerged. However, the normal person doesn’t have a large enough container for something like that. So, fill a plastic Ziploc bag with dried beans or salt to create a weight. Important: remove as much air from the bag as possible by submerging it in water while holding the top of the bag. Once you get as much air out of there as possible, seal the bag. Do this once more, creating a double bag (so you can use it again). This creates the closest you’re going to get to a vacuum seal without a vacuum sealer. Anyway, place the bag on top of your pickled veg so the product is forced down and cover the container your pickle is in with the appropriate lid.

That being said, pickling peppers does take some of the heat out of them, so they aren’t as spicy as when they are raw. If you want to remove even more heat (like if you were pickling a habanero), remove the pith and seeds before you pickle it. This will result in the full pepper taste, but dial the heat down quite a bit. You can also add more sweetness to the liquid, or add fruit into your combination.

Sweet-pickled jalapenos

Ingredients:

8 Jalapenos (sliced)

3 cups apple cider vinegar

4 Tablespoons pickling spice

2 Tablespoons salt

4 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons honey

Sauce pot (medium sized)

Mandolin or knife

Container large enough to hold four cups (a quart)

Directions: 

1. Sanitize your peppers 
2. In a sauce pot over medium heat, slowly toast the pickling spice until you begin to smell it (you may hear some popping too)
3. Add your vinegar, salt, sugar, and honey; and bring to a boil
4. While you are waiting on this, slice down your peppers and place into container
5. Once boiled, either strain the spice mixture out or leave it in
6. Pour into container with peppers
7. Let sit uncovered until it begins to cool down a bit
8. Place your weighted bag on top of the peppers and make sure they are submerged fully
9. Cover the container and store in the refrigerator for 48 hours before transferring 

Pickled Red Onion

To tie in with my last post, as well as “Meatless Monday,” I am going to show you my staple red onion pickling recipe and procedure. I’ve talked about pickling before when we did pickled spring veg. These little suckers are packed full of flavor and provide a fabulous color to any dish. One thing I like to do is DIY tacos or flatbreads, and these are great toppers for those. Also try omelets, sandwiches, salads, and even sautés. Just think of it as additional acidity in the dish and the possibilities are endless.

One more note before I supply the recipe: you can leave the aromatics in, or strain them out. It’s really up to you. If you leave the spices in, they tend to provide a stronger flavor. However, if you strain them out, the liquid will only be as potent as it is at that point in time. I’d suggest doing a batch of each and figuring out what you like and basing your progression on that. I chose to leave the spices in this time.

Pickled Red Onions

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons pickling spice

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 teaspoons sugar

3 cups white distilled vinegar

1/2 cup red wine

5 small or 3 regular red onions (julienne) 

Directions:

1. Toast pickling spice in hot pot
2. Add vinegar, red wine, salt, and sugar to pot. Bring to a boil
3. Place julienne red onion into container. You want it to be large enough to let the liquid cover it completely.
4. Once liquid is boiling, pour over onions. Let cool for half an hour. Cover and refrigerate.
5. Let sit for 12 hours minimum; 24 is ideal! 

Pickled Vegetable Salad with Zinfandel Poached Pears

One of my favorite processes to do is pickling. I love it for the endless possibilities that you can transform not only the taste, but the appearance of it as well. Today, I am going to expose you to a very light pickling solution. I will be doing some other variations, but I do like the light flavor and keeps veggies super crisp for a while (at least a month). Also keep in mind; you don’t necessarily have to use the exact proportions of vegetables that I use in this recipe, or even those ingredients. The goal of this post is to give you a simple and light pickling recipe that you can utilize across the board.  Feel free to also apply this application to small spring vegetables if you can find them where you purchase produce. They are a really easy solution to dressing up a dish and increasing the flavor.

You can utilize different ingredients to create other variations on it. For example: if you want to make your pickling liquid dye your product red, simply add beet juice to the mixture. If the color yellow is the one you seek, utilize some turmeric. Keep in mind as well that when you are pickling things such as radishes, or any lightly colored produce, that it tends to run in color, or absorb the color of the liquid. Given this information, you can deduce that if you pickle red cabbage, no matter what color the pickling liquid, it will run red and turn the entire liquid that color and therefore everything else in it. For this reason I have chosen to utilize white/light green cabbage. Looking back, I would use a savoy cabbage to provide a different texture and for some more contrast in color. Like I said – do whatever tickles your fancy.  

One thing must be made clear; in order to pickle something properly, it must be submerged in the liquid. To accomplish this, I have tried many variations on how to keep the product submerged. The best method is putting some beans (or some other small heavy objects) in a plastic bag and placing it on top of the product. This will keep the product below the liquid. Make sure that you do use a container with a lid and keep refrigerated. This is not a product that should be kept in dry storage, or out on the counter.

I also chose to include wine poached pears in this picture. I simply peeled the pears, submerged them in wine in a pot and allowed to simmer for 20 minutes. Once that is done, take the pears out and reduce the leftover wine liquid until there are bubbles on top of bubbles. This creates a reduction from it. I will explore wine poaching fruit in another post. But, if you want to duplicate this dish - it is pretty easy.

Pickling veggies

Ingredients:

• 7 Radishes (julienne)
• 2 Carrots (julienne)  
• 1 Fennel head (julienne)
• 1 Onion (julienne) use red onion to die liquid pink
• ½ Cabbage head (julienne)

Pickling liquid (if you have pickling spice, simply substitute all spices for 3 Tablespoons pickling spice):

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 Tablespoon pepper corns
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed
• 3 cups vinegar (white to absorb color, red to add color)
• 4 cups water

Procedure:

• Combine all veggie ingredients in a container(s) that has a lid. You want the container(s) to be filled almost to the top to leave room for the liquid to cover the product.
• In a hot pot, put in spices and toast briefly (about 30 seconds max) to help bring out some essential flavors.
• Add vinegar and water. Bring to a boil
• Carefully pour hot liquid into container(s) with veggies.
• Allow to cool. Cover and store in refrigeration.