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.