A little while ago, I reblogged the Sweet & Spicy Pickled Peppers from Simply Made Kitchen and Crafts. It looked just perfect the way it was, so I felt no need to tweak it. I did, however, feel a need to make it! 

I have so many jalapeños in my garden, and I can’t have Chorizo-Stuffed Jalapeños every night, can I? Well, maybe I can, but I also wanted to save some peppers for later. That didn’t work out so well, because we ate almost all of them in one night! 

My first exposure to jalapeños was many years ago, when you just couldn’t get them in Upstate NY. My parents had some friends who’d just moved from San Antonio. They brought with them a huge jar of pickled jalapeño peppers with crinkle-cut carrots, & they got us hooked. So I had way more experience with spicy food than most people I knew, and I loved it. I learned quickly that anything in the jar with the jalapeños will be at least as spicy, if not more so, than the peppers themselves. Especially the crinkle-cut carrot slices, which are wicked hot. 

Which reminds me of Freshman year in Chemistry class. Yes, kids, I’m going to tell that story. Again. There was another student in my class, I’ll call him MT, whom I found to be, um, annoying? It seemed to bother him immensely to have a girl in his chemistry class who was just as smart as he was (maybe even more). Always trying to one-up me, that sort of thing. So when the professor invited us for an end-of-semester party at his house, and I saw the dish of jalapeño & carrot slices, well…Yeah, I was that bad. Helped myself to a jalapeño slice, ate it without blinking, & offered MT one. He declined, saying he knew they were spicy. So, straight faced, I said, “Okay, just have a carrot, then.” Sweet smile. He took one. The professor saw, & I really think he was trying very hard not to laugh. Of course, MT had steam coming out his ears, his face was beet red, tears streaming, as you can imagine. Me, again sweetly: “Oh, I’m so sorry, did I forget to mention they’re hot? Let me get you a glass of water.” That was when the prof warned, “Julie…” Oh, all right, I’ll get him some salt instead. Now, maybe you don’t know that water is the very worst thing to offer someone whose mouth is on fire. See, the capsaicin is fat-soluble. (Chemistry class, remember?). Water just spreads it around. The best thing to tame the heat is anything fat-based, which is why so many spicy dishes are served with cheese or sour cream. Salt is a (distant) second. It’ll help a bit, just pour some in your hand & lick it. So MT, if you’re out there, I’m sorry. Well, no, actually I’m not – I’m still laughing about it, all these years later! Outsmarted ya after all, didn’t I? But feel free to tell your side of the story in the comments 😉 

I loved the colors in Linda’s original post, and had some pretty red & yellow bell peppers. And, just like the carrot I gave MT, they ended up being even hotter than the jalapeños. They also had such a lovely underlying sweetness, just absolutely delicious. You can adjust the proportion of hot peppers to sweet to suit your own preferences. I didn’t have any canning jars, so I used a glass pitcher & covered it with heavy plastic wrap. So, here’s my experience making Linda’s awesome recipe. You can find her post here: Simply Made Kitchen and Crafts, and a printer-friendly version of the recipe at the bottom of this page.

Ingredients:

6-7 jalapenos

2 bell peppers

2 cups white vinegar

1⅓ cups water

1 Tbsp fine sea salt*

2 tsp sugar

Preparation:

1.) Slice the jalapeños, keeping the membranes & seeds intact. (You can remove them if you want a little less heat.) Slice the bell peppers, discarding their membranes & seeds. Fill the pitcher (jar) with the peppers. Set aside.

2.) Combine the remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Heat to a gentle simmer, and stir until salt & sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat.

3.) When the vinegar mixture has cooled, pour it over the peppers until covered.

4.) Cover tightly & refrigerate. Wait a week or two for the flavors to meld. The peppers should keep in the fridge for up to 2 months.

5.) Two weeks later, we covered a sheet pan full of Tostitos with shredded cheddar, and topped them with these awesome peppers. Baked at 350°F until the cheese was bubbly, these may have been the best nachos we ever had. They certainly were the prettiest!

*Don’t use regular table salt, or any that contains iodide. It will give an off taste.