Giardiniera

Giardiniera


2019-01-08

They’re a bit broken.

This is such a well documented fact that it has become a long-standing family joke: the heat sensors in my mouth are broken. Nay, shot all to pieces. It’s not just temperature, but spiciness that I experience way differently than normal people…namely my husband and children. When my munchkins were babies, I would check their food to make sure it wasn’t too hot. Food that felt comfortably warm, even tepid, to me would inevitably leave them shrieking and spraying me in the face. Neil took over temperature control.

My husband is no lightweight when it comes to spice heat in his food. When he comments on the heat of a dish that I thought had an ok amount of heat (but could use a healthy drizzle of Tapatio or Franks Red Hot Sauce, it is confirmed that it was a good call to make something different for the kids. His raised eyebrows speak volumes. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that I also love sour, bitter and dry sensations (plain greek yogurt is my jam, and I’ll happily eat raw tahini straight from the jar).

It’s ok. Now that I’ve made my peace with the fact that I experience taste differently than everyone I know, I can work with that. It’s a good thing we live in the south where pickling anything and everything is a way of life (Why hello pigs feet and eggs!) because spicy pickled veggies are one of my favorite snacks. Since no one else shares my penchant for these various delights, I can can up a whole horde and crank the heat up as high as I want. MUAHAHAHA!

This recipe came up when I consulted Google and I have high hopes for it. She taught me how to say its name properly, and it had good reviews. However, we will have to break open a jar soon to make sure the recipe is worth doing again (or 5 more times). Darn. Anything for science!

Salt!

The salting of the veggies helps them leach moisture. It took me a lot of canning mishaps before I truly respected the art of canning raw fruits and veggies. Let us not dwell on the Apple Pie Filling Mishap of ‘09’. Let us move on with lessons learned and gooey jars behind us.

Herbs!

This is where the magic and heat happen. More red pepper flakes = more heat and therefore more magic.

done and done.

It’s this sense of accomplishment that keeps me canning. That and the fact that I can put up this awesomeness for half the cost of its equivalent in the grocery store. As a canner though, there are myriad things that keep me humble and on my toes. This recipe should have yielded 8 quarts…I only got 5. Oh well, I’ll know for next time and hopefully there will be a next time for this beautiful snack. I’ll let you know after I eat a whole jar (probably in one go). You know. For science.