Pickled Peppers

Pickled peppers are one of the most delicious ways to preserve peppers. With a spicy, punchy flavour these only take about 5 minutes prep and within a few weeks you will be enjoying some incredible tasting pickled peppers. Serve them with meats, kebabs or on a pinxtos or just snack on them by themselves. If you love pickles, this is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

For this Pickled pepper recipe I used Sivri Pepper, Sivri Biber or Turkish peppers. These are a sweet and spicy pepper that is used not only in Turkey but across Eastern Europe and the Balkans. They are also served with Lebanese meat kebabs as a piquant, spicy and sweet accompaniment. You can also use sliced banana peppers or small peppers.

How to Serve Pickled Peppers: these go so well with meats, on sandwiches, salads, to top pizzas or even give a jar of these as a gift. Everyone that tasted these agreed that they were even better than the ones that you can buy at the supermarket!

I first made this particular pickled pepper recipe a mid last year. However this was during a time when we were doing major kitchen renovations. Because you do have to wait for pickles the time elapsed between making them and popping open the jar was one a half weeks and in that time, my entire kitchen had shifted as had everything in those rooms.

I never saw saw the recipe that I had written out again. I had process pictures but no recipe!

The lost recipe caused me a great deal of anguish because the pickled guindillas were so delicious! I turned everything upside down looking for the piece of paper where I had written out my recipe to no avail. After that I changed my system and all of my recipe development is now recorded in a book rather than on a piece of loose paper. I call it "the pickled pepper incident of 2023".

In December last year I got some Turkish peppers in my vege box and wondered if I could remember how to make them remembering how delicious the guindillas were. I remade them and waited but by then we were in the throes of Christmas, then New Years, then the 600 days of January and suddenly it was February and I decided to open up the jar. The lid made a satisfying pop and I tried one. Pepper perfection. They were crisp, sweet and spicy and when I did a taste test with Mr NQN with commercial peppers he preferred these. And thanks to the pickled pepper incident of 2023 I won't lose another recipe again!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever pickled peppers? What would you eat these with? Have you ever lost something that caused you anguish?

Pickled Peppers

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 5 minutes plus up to 10 days waiting time

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Makes 1 large jar of pickles

• 300g/10.6ozs Turkish peppers
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
• 1/2 cup/125ml/4flozs apple cider vinegar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 3 bay leaves

Step 1 - Blanch peppers in boiling water for 15 seconds and then drain in a sieve. Use gloves (Turkish peppers vary in heat and sometimes they can be hot) and cut the peppers up into 2 inch pieces if they are thick or keep whole if they are smaller ones. Place the vinegar, salt, sugar, oil and bay leaves in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.

Step 2 - Place the peppers in a hot sterilised jar* and then pour over with the brine solution including the bay leaves and halved garlic. Make sure that the jar is hot or the glass will break (never pour hot liquid into cold glass). With gloves, screw the lid on tightly and leave on the counter. Shake every couple of days or so. The pickles will be ready after 10 days.

*To sterilise a jar, heat the jar and lid in a 180C/350F oven to 10 minutes. Make sure that the jar doesn't not have a rubber seal as this will melt in the oven.