Pickled Things

A couple of different easy pickles for Taco Tuesday (or any day). For the escabeche, pretty much all you do is fill a 1-gallon crock 3/4 full with sliced jalapeños, peeled/sliced carrots, quartered peeled shallots, and peeled smashed garlic cloves, then add a few bay leaves, a teaspoonful each of black peppercorns and cumin seed, and a tablespoon each of Mexican oregano and coriander seed. For the brine, add 3 tbsp kosher salt for every quart of water (it’s easiest to dissolve the salt in a little bit of the water, warmed up, and then mix that in with the rest of the water). Place a saucer in the crock on top of the vegetables to keep them submerged below the brine. Cover the crock with a kitchen towel or a cheesecloth and leave it at room temperature to ferment for about a week (check after a few days and skim off any mold or scum floating on top). Taste a piece after the brine has gone cloudy — if it tastes good, then put the vegetables in jars, fill halfway with brine and then top off with white vinegar, and keep the jars in the fridge.

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And no #tacotuesday would be complete without carrots and jalapeños en escabeche! These were fermented for about a week (months ago; they’ve been in the fridge waiting for their moment to shine). I puréed some of this last summer into some extremely piquant hot sauce, but saved a couple pints for snacking. It’s so simple: peppers, carrots, shallots, garlic, and scallions in a 2% brine with Mexican oregano, peppercorns, bay leaf, and coriander seeds. Since they haven’t been boiling water bath-canned, the vegetables still have great texture. 🌶 🥕 🌮#onions #jalapeños #carrots #pickles #escabeche #mexicanfood #preserves #quickpickle #homemade #af #fermentation #f52grams #foodblogfeed #eeeeeats #foodstagram #instafood #food52 #thekitchn #tacotuesday

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