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Pickled Chilies with Garlic and Rosemary

You can use any chilies you want for the following recipe but banana peppers are especially nice. The quantity in the following recipe makes enough to fill a medium sized jar. If you want to preserve more chilies, you can use more vinegar and dilute it with some water. If you want to pickle red or yellow bell peppers, instead of chili peppers, remove the seeds, membranes, and caps first. Small chili peppers can be left whole or trimmed and de-seeded.

This recipe is easy to make but remember you need to make it a few weeks in advance to let the flavors develop properly. If you are looking for a last minute recipe, remember that you can buy ready pickled chilies but, of course, they will not be anywhere near as special or flavorful as homemade ones, especially this recipe with its wonderful bay leaf, rosemary, and garlic tastes.

This is not the most kid-friendly recipe unless your child happens to enjoy sour or fiery tastes, but pickled chilies do make a great appetizer or side dish. Why not serve a couple alongside a homemade meat curry or with an Asian dish? These are also nice with Greek food like moussaka, casserole recipes when you want to liven them up or even salads. Depending on the dish in question, you can serve something creamy too, like sour cream or yogurt, to take away the heat if need be. You will really be able to taste the herbs in the finished pickled chilies and once you have opened the jar they will keep for months in the refrigerator so make plenty. Do not let the three week wait put you off either - just make these in advance and you will be thrilled with the outcome.

Pickled Chilies Recipe with Herbs and Garlic

Ingredients -

8 oz whole fresh chilies
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf
3 cups white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
4 peeled cloves garlic

Preparation:

Discard any broken, blemished, or bruised chilies.

Snip off the stems, leaving just the base.

Bring half the vinegar to a boil in a pot with the chilies.

Add the rosemary, bay leaf, garlic, and salt and simmer the mixture for 7 minutes.

Transfer the chilies and the liquid into a sterilized jar.

Pour in the remaining vinegar.

Let the mixture cool, then seal the jar and keep it somewhere dark and cool.

You can eat the chilies 3 weeks later.

Keep the opened jar in the refrigerator.

(Serves 20)

Wine Suggestion:

Which Wine Goes with Pickled Chili

A slightly sweet wine, such as a Muscat or Riesling, would be excellent with this pickled chilies recipe. The residual sugar will be able to tame the fiery chilies at the same time as complementing the underlying sweetness in the recipe. Stay away from high tannin wines unless you want to amplify the spiciness. If you do want to serve red wine with this, go for a Californian Pinot Noir.

Pickled Chili

Photo Description:

Nobody can say that chilies do not have their own unique flavor (and plenty of it!) but pickling them adds a whole new dimension to this wonderful snack. Pickled chilies are a delicious appetizer or side dish and you do not even have to use really spicy ones. The above recipe would also work for red or yellow bell peppers, as well as the banana peppers shows in the picture. Pickling chilies or other vegetables in vinegar adds a sour flavor to them, which goes well with their natural sweetness and spiciness.