A New Heartsease...

Jalapenos Part 2 - Jalapeno Pickled Eggs

 

Jalapeno Pickled Eggs are a nice appetizer with beverages when guests stop by. The resulting "pickle" results in only moderate heat, but a nice savor!

    If you have extra eggs you need to use up, as I did when I kept chickens, or you simply want to purchase some extra eggs to make this recipe, you'll be glad you did!

    If folks drop by unexpectedly or even if you know their coming, you'll always have something to serve even if your fridge is nearly bare. Pickled eggs keep in the fridge for three to four months, so make extra and you'll always have some on hand, especially if every month, or so, you make a new batch! This way you'll never run out.

    The eggs, once boiled and pickled, make a quick and handy protein-packed snack, a savory addition to salads, and a totable snack, too.

     My favorite way to enjoy these is with a martini or margarita. They go well with champagne or a crisp white wine, such as Pinot Grigio and Chilled Rose' is nice, too.

    This is an easy recipe because no canning processes are required.

 

Recipe: Jalapeno Pickled Eggs (makes one six-egg jarful)

    For every six eggs, you'll need a clean quart jar. I use canning jars as I have many of them. But any glass quart jar with a big enough opening to insert the ingredients will do.

    If you're careful not to touch the flesh, pith, and seeds of the peppers you won't need to wear kitchen gloves. The pepper oils can remain on your hands for hours causing a sting if you touch your eyes or any other moist areas, such as your nose!

    Simply double, triple - or more - the amount of ingredients for the number of jars you want to prepare.

Ingredients:

6 hard boiled eggs

1 cup cider or white vinegar

1 cup water

2 to 4 TBS sweetener of choice (I use Splenda or liquid stevia)

6 small or 3 large cloves of garlic, halved

2 jalapeno peppers, stem ends cut off, seeded, and halved

1 tsp cumin seed

1 TBS canning or regular salt

 

Method:

    Place the eggs in a sauce pan with water to cover. Bring the water to a boil and gently boil the eggs for eight minutes. Turn off the burner and cover the pan with a lid, allowing the eggs to sit until cooled and the pan is only warm to the touch. Remove the eggs and peel them.

 

A spoon makes a handy tool for removing seeds and pith.

 

    After the eggs are cool enough to handle place the prepared peppers and garlic into the jar. Add the eggs.

 

This jar is ready for the brine.

    In a small pan prepare the brine by adding the remaining ingredients - water, vinegar, sweetener, cumin seeds,and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil on a medium boil until whatever sweetener you've used is dissolved.

    Carefully pour the hot brine into the jar (a canning funnel makes this a snap). Screw on a lid and refrigerate. Don't open for at least one week, two weeks is preferable, so the flavors can penetrate the eggs.

    If desired you may rinse the pickled egg with water and dab dry with a paper towel prior to serving.

    The eggs last three to four months in the fridge.

 

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If you use regular salt instead of canning salt your finished brine will be cloudier, as in this batch, although flavor will be the same.

 

Notes:

    Using cumin seed instead of ground cumin will result in a cleaner look for serving your eggs and prevent additional cloudiness.

    You may use either cider (my personal preference) or white vinegar. White vinegar gives a crisper look while cider vinegar brings a brown cast to the brine and the egg white. If you use cider vinegar with the "mother" still in it, as I sometimes do, your finished product will naturally be more cloudy.

    If you like a tangier egg, use less sweetener. Four TBS sweetener gives a savory-sweet flavor.

    Honey is the original sweetener for this recipe so may want to try that instead. 

    

    

 

    

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

    

Jalapenos Part 1 - Jalapeno Salsa/Sauce (Just four ingredients!).

Not mild, but not too hot (at least I think so)...jalapeno peppers may be used green or in their red, fully ripened state.

 

Make a little or a lot! Four pint jars last me about six months before I have to make more. Nice too, for gifting to your salsa-loving friends!

 

    When I lived in my Folk Victorian farmhouse in Elsinore, Utah (where I called this "sauce", rather than "salsa"), I used to grow a row of jalapeno peppers. I smoked them (on the BBQ), dehydrated them and canned them in slices and as salsa.

    When I grew my own, I'd let some ripen to red - they have a more complex, mellower flavor - and I'd make the red version of this salsa.

    Now I live in Northern Idaho in a condo, so I purchase my peppers from the grocer. Seldom do markets carry fully ripened jalapenos.

    You'll need a food processor, a pair of rubber kitchen gloves, a knife, 4 pint canning jars + one 8-oz. jar - clean and sterlized (I usually sterilize one more jar than I think I'll need, just in case), 5 or 6 lids and bands, a canning funnel, a ladle, a steam or water bath canner, jar lifter, a towel to set the finished jars of salsa upon, and a damp paper towel to wipe the jar rims...probably an apron and maybe a spoon.

    If you want to remove all or some of the seeds (I don't for this particular recipe), a spoon can be a handy tool to slip out the seeds and pith.

 

After cutting off the stem end of the pepper and slicing it in half, hold half the pepper down with one hand. With the other hand slip the spoon between the flesh and seedy pith lifting it out along the length of the pepper half. Repeat with all or some of the peppers, if desired.

 

    A pair of clean kitchen gloves will prevent the pepper oils from stinging your skin...and the inadvertent rubbing of one's eyes even many hours after washing your hands with soap and water. The oils are impervious to soap and water for up to 24 hours and rubbing your eye will result in a stinging eye, but no permanent damage. If you do this, flushing the eye with cool water will give relief. 

    If you choose to put the seeds and pepper tops down the garbage disposal, simply stand back as the oils will rise from the disposal and if you inhale them you'll cough. Use the same precaution - standing back - after you've ground them in the food processor, before removing the top.

 

Recipe: Jalapeno Salsa (approx. 4-1/2 pints)

2 pounds fresh jalapeno peppers, topped, halved, seeded, and roughly chopped.

4 cups white vinegar

1/4 + 2 tsp canning salt

8 cloves of garlic peeled

    Add all the ingredients to a food processor fitted with the blade. Grind until all the ingredients are uniformly ground, but not completely liquefied. Pour the mixture into a large sauce pan.

 

 

The resulting pepper slurry should be slightly chunky, but uniform.

 

    Cook the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it comes to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for five minutes. The mixture will change color to an olive-green as it cooks.

 

Color change of cooked mixture. You can see the seeds I left in. They remain whole through the processing.

 

You can sterilize your jars in the dishwasher or wash them and set them into hot boiling water, to cover, or over the steam canner's boiling water with the canner lid in place for 10 minutes. Here, I've sterilized the jars for 10 minutes in the steam canner, removed the lid, and the hot jars are ready to fill.

 

    Place your canning funnel on top of the jar to be filled and use your ladle to fill it to within 1/4-inch of the top of the jar. Use a damp paper towel to wipe the rim of any of the salsa. Top the jar with a lid centered on the jar, add the band and finger tighten.

    If you're left with salsa insufficient to fill a pint jar, you may add the remainder to a smaller jar, and process it with the pint jars, or place it in the fridge for use within the next four to six weeks.

 

The lids should be placed into lightly simmering water, not boiling water as this may warp the seals. Simmer for 10 minutes, then the turn off the burner. The water will remain hot until all the lids are removed and placed upon the jars.

    

    Set each filled jar upright in the water bath or steam canner rack. Continue until all the jars are filled and in the canner. Turn up the burner to high. When the canner is ready - full, rolling boil for a water bath canner - or following the processing instructions for your steam canner, begin processing for 15 minutes, adding five minutes for each 1,000 feet you are located above sea level.

    When the time is up turn off the burner and allow the canner to rest for one minute. Use hot pads to lift the lid so the steam is directed away from you - especially important when using a steam canner - and place the lid/top in a safe spot out of the way.

    Using a jar lifter, or clean dish towel, remove the hot, boiling jars from the canner and place them on a clean towel to cool and dry.

 

Hot jars, contents still boiling - hence the look of contents separation - draining on the cutting board. The small jar was gifted to a neighbor after cooling.

 

    Upon lifting the jars out of the canner, or a few minutes afterward, you'll hear "pings" as the jars seal. Finger test the lid seal after the jars have cooled overnight - 12 to 24 hours.

     Don't attempt to tighten or remove the bands until this time period has passed. Then you may remove the band, if desired.

     Press the center of the lid to be sure it doesn't flex. If you cannot finger-lift the lid and it doesn't flex, wipe your jars clean with a damp cloth, dry them, give them each a shake to remix the contents, date and store them.

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    A jar of jalapeno salsa makes a nice gift! Add a square or circle of decorative fabric tied on over the lid with a piece of ribbon or cording, to add a touch of decoration for gifting.

    First securing the fabric over the lid with a rubber band makes tying on the cord much easier.

    Jalapeno salsa is delicious on Mexican food, hot dogs, and egg dishes...anywhere you'd like to add some savor and a bit of heat.

    Enjoy!!!

 

 

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    Upcoming, in Part 2, I'll share my recipe for Jalapeno Pickled Eggs!

 

Note:

    

    

    I use a steam canner, not a steam-pressure canner, in place of a water bath canner. It uses far less water - only a couple of pints - than a traditional water bath canner so I'm not lifting a canner full of several gallons of water.

    The processing times are the same as for a water bath canner.

    Be sure to follow the manufacturer's instructions for when to begin timing - when the steam from the vent holes reaches at least a 15-inch long, unfluctuating stream - and for cooling-before-opening at the end for the canning process.