On Sunday, Joe and I went to the St. Paul Farmers' Market which you can read about over on MN Blog. I've always wanted to go but in the summer, we are rarely home if you can't tell. We just happened to be in town this weekend which was a nice break from all the traveling we've been doing lately so this little piggy went to the market. (Sorry, I babysat for some friends on Friday night and as you can tell, we did a few nursery rhymes!)
Anyway, we picked up a few things while we were there and one of our items were banana peppers. For Joe of course, not me. I can't handle the slightest ounce of anything remotely hot or spicy. He tried one once we got home and said it didn't really taste sweet or hot so I went straight to Google for help in finding a canning recipe for HOT banana peppers.
I give you... Hot pickled Banana Peppers. Not sure what they'll taste like when they're ready but I hope they'll be hot enough for Joe!
What you'll need:
About 25 banana peppers
2 cups water
3 cups distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup salt
2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon dill seeds
2 teaspoons ground allspice
I also added a little bit of cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes to spice it up a bit.
The recipe makes about four pint-sized jars, so out came the big stock pot of boiling water to sterilize the jars and lids. First, I got the peppers ready by cutting off the tops, slicing the peppers into rings and removing the core. Then you soak the peppers in a bowl of ice water with a tablespoon of salt for at least an hour. Don't ask me why you do this step...it's just what the recipe said to do:)
About a half hour into icing the peppars, I started sterilizing the jars and lids in boiling water for about 10 minutes.
Next, bring the remaining ingredients (water, vinegar, salt, sugar, and spices) to a boil as well.
Once everything was boiling and good to go, I filled the jars with the peppers and then poured the vinegar mixture over them. I used a small handheld strainer when pouring the liquid into the jars, so I could evenly divide the spices among the four jars. Caution: It will be hot!! Glasses will fog!!
Put the lids on the jars, screw the tops on and return them to the boiling water to process. At this point I didn't read the directions far enough because I had already dumped my hot water into the sink! Bahh!! So I had to fill the pot up again and start boiling some more water. You'll want to boil the jars vigorously for 40 minutes, then remove from the liquid and set on a dish towel to cool. Then you wait for the lids to pop!
The recipe said to wait about a month before diving into them! Joe looked pretty excited when he came home from the library and saw what I did. I hope they taste great! Otherwise, we have four jars of pickled hot banana peppers up for grabs!
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