Refrigerator Turshi (AKA pickled peppers)

Refrigerator Tursli 

(AKA pickled peppers)

I meant to start this blog off with more "artsy fartsy" stuff, but I guess we are starting with cooking.  :)  Today I made turshi, AKA pickled peppers.  I FINALLY know what that nursery rhyme was talking about!  (How pickled peppers did Peter Pepper pick?)  We never ate pickled peppers when I was growing up.  Just cucumber pickles, called simply "pickles".  So I thought pickled peppers were some weird amalgamation of cucumber pickles with jalapenos (the only pepper I was familiar with, because who really thinks of green peppers as peppers?)  Now I know what I was missing!  They are really good!  The perfect accompaniment for Albanian dishes.  Often served as a side at a meal.

I know it is putting the cart before the horse to post a side dish before posting any recipes for REAL food.  Sorry about that.  I will rectify that shortly, inshAllah (God willing).  Until I do, let me direct you to a wonderful blog called Mom, What's for Dinner?  The author is half-Albanian living in Canada and has many wonderful Albanian recipes on her site.  She was one of the first places I found to learn how to cook this wonderful cuisine.  And she also has lots of other wonderful recipes!


So, this afternoon, burdened by way too many peppers from Sadik's amazing garden, I pickled peppers.  And here is the recipe.

The Recipe:

The original recipe I used called for 2 pounds of peppers.  I had more.  So I just tripled the recipe for the brine.  In canning (though this isn't really canning, these are refrigerator pickles), keeping the ratio of water, vinegar, and salt and/or sugar the same is the important part.  The ratio of those ingredients is necessary to keep the food from spoiling.  So never alter the ratio and always follow trusted recipes.

OK, about the peppers.  I used a Sweet Hungarian Banana pepper (see the long, yellow ones in the pics.  I didn't use any of the green ones.)  Not hot at all.  Sadik doesn't do spicy.  There is also a Hot Hungarian variety (that looks almost exactly the same) if you like some heat.  They are mild on the pepper scale.  If you aren't growing your own, farmer's markets are a great place to get peppers cheap.  The long varieties are normally what is used, as opposed to bell peppers.  I am not sure why.  Maybe it is because they fit in a jar better.  Though I did see an Albanian video of a woman stuffing a slice of tomato in an orange bell pepper with some onion (I think) (update 1/6/15: I found out that it wasn't onion, it is normally a wedge of cabbage.)  and then preserving those.  I am interested in trying that one!

Anyway, any long peppers will do.  If you must buy from the grocery store, the bags of the colored mini peppers work well.  I have used them in the past.  The best deal I find for those is often at Aldi.

Ingredients:

2 Pounds peppers

4 cups water

1/2 cup white vinegar (though you could substitute other kinds if you don't mind a color and taste difference)

3 tablespoons pickling salt (MUST be pickling.  The iodine in the other salt does funky things when preserving.)

Cut and gut your peppers.  I remove the top, then cut them open on one side to the tip.  Open them up and remove all the "guts".  ;P  Then spread them as flat as you can, breaking them a bit as necessary.  This will help you fit more in a jar.  If you want them to look prettier in your jar, only remove the top and pull out the seeds.  You won't fit as many, but it will look nicer.  If you really want to be old-school, don't cut off anything.  But prick the pepper several times deeply to allow the vinegar to seep inside the pepper.  When people eat them, they pull off the top and out the seeds.  Many are sold this way.  I find this way only works better for actually canning, than for refrigerator pickles.  The finally processing phase seems to drive the brine deeper into the peppers.  Refrigerator pickles are missing that phase and don't seem to absorb the brine as well without it.  So I don't recommend it.  InshAllah, soon I will be posting a recipe for actually hot-water-bath canned pickled peppers (try saying that fast!)

removing the top

See the "guts"?  Rip them out!

Flatten them.

Lots o' flat ones.

Rinse off any remaining seeds.  Now gather a stack of the tallest ones in your hand and stuff them in the jar.  Then keep fitting them in until your jar is totally full, but none of them stick up past the bottom of the rim.  They need to be all submerged under the brine or they will spoil.  Air is your enemy in preserving.

Gather them in your hand...

Now heat your brine.  May sure you use a non-reactive pot (enameled or stainless steel).  If you aren't sure if your pot is non-reactive, look on the bottom to see what it is made of.  Most say.  If it doesn't and you don't know, assume it is reactive to be safe.  If it is enameled or stainless steel, you are good to go.  Here is a good article about why you can't can in reactive pots.

This is not only the rule for pots!  You must be sure to not use any metal utensils as well that can react with the vinegar.  I use bamboo spoons and skewers.

Remember to keep your ratio the same! What I do is decide how much I am going to increase my recipe (let's say double it).  Then I just multiply all the amounts by two.  Easy peasy.

Now your brine (that is the term for the water/vinegar/salt mixture you have made) is boiling.  Remove it from the heat.  With a ladle (plastic), spoon the brine carefully into the jars.  All the way to the bottom of where the lid screws on.  Now take a long bamboo skewer (or chopstick) and poke down carefully all along the sides and in the middle to release any air bubbles.  Your carefully laid peppers will get disrupted.  It is OK.  You can settle them back down when you are done.

Which is now.  Make sure all the peppers are completely beneath the brine.  Let the jars sit open until they have cooled or they could explode!  Then put their lid on and let them sit on the kitchen counter overnight.  After that, store them in the fridge.

Now the recipe says they are only good for 2 weeks, but I have to tell you that I have kept them much longer than that and they are fine.  I like to put them in the back of the fridge where it is colder.  Other than that, keep them clean.  Use clean (non-reactive) utensils when removing the peppers from the jar and they can keep for weeks, if not months.

A note about jars.  I recommend only using pyrex jars.  Jars meant for canning.  Such jars can take the heat and survive.  Old mayonnaise jars, etc. maybe good a few times, but you never know when one will shatter.  I do use a gallon jar that I originally bought turshi in before I knew how to make it.  I trust that jar a bit more, even though it is reused, because it had peppers in it.  But I fully expect it to break sooner than a canning jar.  But where do you find those gallon sized?  As for lids.  Do not use a ring and canning top unless you have nothing else and no money to buy anything else.  Walmart (and I am sure other places that sell canning supplies) sell these nifty plastic lids that fit mason jars.  They even have wide-mouth and regular!  And they are not expensive.  You can see the one I used in the pic (the white one).

Soon, inshAllah, I will be posting a recipe for pite, a dish that is traditionally eaten with these peppers.  Enjoy!