This year I started a new garden. I cleaned out all the stumps, rocks, and weeds and planted in new fresh soil. If any of you has started a new garden in a forested area you know how the first season isn't all the best. Many of my plants grew and some of them died, but my jalapenos flourished. My jalapenos grew into big bushes and I can pick about 20- 30 peppers every week or less. I have been putting jalapenos in everything; I have even been giving them away. I realized that I can not eat all of these peppers, and I do not want them to go to waste. I have found some very delicious and effective methods of preserving jalapeno peppers. The simplest and easiest recipe for preserving jalapenos is pickled jalapenos. The best part of pickled jalapenos is that you can pickle them with many different vegetable combinations.
My favorite pickled jalapeno recipe is pickled jalapenos and carrots. To make pickled jalapenos and carrots start by boiling enough vinegar to cover your vegetables and fill you jar. I like to use old pickle jars because the rims are wide enough to pour into, and you can stick your hand inside to get the delicious treats out.
When the vinegar starts to boil, add the carrots and boil them for 10 minutes. I use baby carrots because they are already in small pieces but you can cut up regular carrots if you like. The carrots will become soft. Make sure to check how many carrots and jalapeno you can fit in your jar before boiling any of the vegetables.
The next step is to slice the peppers in half and remove the seeds. For a much hotter pepper leave seeds in pepper and poke a hole in each pepper instead of slicing it. A few seeds mixed in with the vinegar will add a little spice so season according to your spice preference.
After the carrots have become soft add the jalapenos and spices to the vinegar and simmer. I like to use sage, thyme, and cilantro to flavor my pickled mixture, and I also add about 10 whole garlic cloves because I love pickled garlic. Simmer all of the ingredients for 5- 10 minutes. The longer you simmer the mix the softer your jalapenos will be.
Remove the pickled vegetables and season lightly with salt. After the mixture has cooled slightly fill your jar and let sit out for one hour. This will allow time for the mixture to cool; after one hour you can refrigerate the finishes pickled peppers. These vegetables are delicious on their own or in many other recipes.
