Sweet and Sour Cherry Peppers
Lacto- Fermented peppers have such a beautiful complexity that is nearly impossible to achieve with your standard pickling brines.
This isn’t your typical vinegar based pickled pepper. The process of Lacto-Fermentation creates a complex flavor that’s hard to beat with your standard pickle brines. Natural occurring bacteria give the peppers a pleasant sour pucker without compromising the cherry peppers’ subtle sweetness, a difficult feat to accomplish with just vinegar and spices. Usually a vinegar brine will do what’s suppose to do and that’s to pickle the produce which sometimes masks the natural flavors. With lacto-fermentation, the flavors of the peppers are not masked by the brine but amplified giving it a complex and unforgettable flavor.
These cherry peppers are the perfect little flavor bomb that your food has been missing. They can adorn a cold cut sandwich or ,if you’re feeling adventurous, accompany a baked mac and cheese. No matter what the application is, it’s sure to add a flavorful pop that will make you come back for more.
Cherry Peppers
1 ½ TBSP kosher salt
1 ½ TBSP granulated sugar
1 cup deseeded cherry peppers
1 tsp celery seeds
2 Bay Leaves
Filtered water
In a wide mouth quart jar, combine salt, sugar and celery seeds. Put enough water in the jar to dissolve the salt and sugar but don’t fill the jar. With the lid on, shake the jar vigorously to dissolve.
Tightly pack the jar with the cherry peppers and bay leaves, you want to make sure the peppers won’t be able to float to the top. Top with water until everything is submerged, leaving a ½ inch of headspace in the jar.
Seal with the lid and give a gentle shake, loosen the lid slightly. Store the jar in a cool dark place for two weeks.
Check the jar everyday for signs of fermentation. As well as checking for signs of life, take off the lid everyday as well to expel any trapped gas from the fermentation process, make sure mold is not occurring and check to see if peppers are still completely submerged in the brine. If your peppers are floating slightly, take a clean jar or spoon and gently pack the peppers back into the brine.
After the two weeks, your peppers should be soft and smell slightly sour. Store your sweet and sour peppers in the fridge and enjoy!
*Notes: When checking your peppers, you might see a slimy white film floating on top that’s ok. Those are the natural colonies of yeast forming. But if you see signs of furry mold or a smell of rotting vegetables, discard and start again. The jar should smell like vinegar and cherry peppers, nothing else!
When deseeding your cherry peppers, please use gloves! These peppers look deceptively sweet but they are indeed spicy. Trust me from experience, if you don’t use gloves the capsaicin in the peppers will burn your skin and can burn them quite badly. Getting chemical burns is not fun, use the gloves!