Cold arrived early this year in the Tummy Treasure gardens. Though our first REAL cold day seems to be today, the ripening in the garden seemed to all but come to a halt at the end of September. Where I was walking out to the garden and picking a bucketful of tomatoes every day, it was down to just one or two a day- and those weren’t even very ripe. As the frost threatened here and there, I decided I didn’t want to bother with having to cover and uncover my plants, so I went out and picked the tomato plants clean. I ended up with two busboy buckets full of green tomatoes.
I was certain some of them would ripen, but in the meantime, I thought it very prudent to not let any go to waste, and I sought about for some ways to preserve green tomatoes. I’ve made salsa in the past, and while good, it wasn’t really our favorite. What I wanted was a pickle or two. I have very fond memories of my mom making green tomato pickles once. Or maybe Grandma made them, I guess I’m not sure. But what I remember is that they were very delicious- though they ended up quite soft and mushy. As I would go through my pickling books I kept being drawn to two recipes in particular. One was for a curried green tomato pickle- and that one I’ll hopefully share another day. But the one I wanted to make most was called Green Tomato-Hot Pepper Mix. I had the green tomatoes, and I certainly had an abundance of hot peppers in the garden. So after hemming and hawing a lot, I decided to just go for it and make this recipe.
I decided to cut the recipe in half, because if it wasn’t successful, I didn’t want five or six quarts of not so good pickles floating around. But then once I had all the vegetables cut up and soaking in salt, it looked to me like I had a good four quarts worth of vegetables. I wonder if the recipe was written with much smaller green tomatoes or something. Because I was very particular about weighing out 3.5 pounds of the tomatoes, and I was also precise with measuring the peppers. Instead of using a cup of pearl onions, I opted for a cup of vidalia onion, cut vertically, so I had strips of onion instead of just a few pearls scattered amongst the jars. For the peppers, instead of using 2 cups each of specific kinds of pepper, I simply measured out six cups of peppers. Some were hot, some were mild, but you could certainly follow the recipe and use the specific peppers- just don’t go over the specified amount called for.
So as I looked at the quantity of vegetables, I thought that there wasn’t going to be enough brine if I followed half a recipe, so in the end I had half the vegetables called for, but 3/4 of the quantity of brine. I was worried about not having enough brine to cover the vegetables in the jars. There are a few steps to this recipe, but once I had everything chopped and sliced, it was no more difficult than any other pickle I made. I made the brine, cooked the vegetables in it for just a few minutes, and then packed it all into my quart jars. I DID end up with four quart jars, though I probably had about two cups of extra brine when all was said and done.
A few weeks later, we finally cracked into these pickles last night. I wanted to wait long enough that the flavors fully bloomed and co-mingled. And WOW were these tasty. They’re a bit hot though, as I grew some exceptional peppers in the garden this year. So when I make these again with an abundance of hot peppers, I will make sure to use a better proportion of mild peppers too.
The blend of pepper, onion and green tomato is perfect. Each bite is absolutely delicious, although the whole mixture did end up on the soft side. I suspect that is the nature of the beast. Andy wishes there was a bit of a crunch, but unfortunately, I don’t really see how to add that to this mix. Maybe using the pearl onions would make that difference, but two cups of pearl onions in a full recipe is only a very few per jar anyway, so I don’t really think that would matter.
But overall, these are a winner. Even though I found them hotter than I like, I had to keep going back for another bite, because the overall flavor is spectacular. These are a very good pickle, and I highly recommend it if you have green tomatoes floating around begging to be used.
Pickled Green Tomato-Hot Pepper Mix
from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
1/4 cup Pickling Spice (store bought, or make your own)
2 Tbsp mustard seeds
7 lb green tomatoes, cored and cut into eighths (about 21 medium)
4 cups sliced seeded Hungarian or red bell peppers (about 4 large)
4 cups sliced seeded hot yellow banana peppers (about 4 large)
4 cups sliced seeded Anaheim, poblano or fresh New Mexico peppers (about 4 large)
2 cups pickling or pearl onions, peeled (about 25 small)
5 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp pickling or canning salt
8 cups white vinegar
4 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
5 quart glass preserving jars with lids and bands
Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
Tie pickling spice and mustard seeds in a square of cheesecloth creating a spice bag. Set aside.
Combine tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and salt in a large glass or stainless steel bowl. Mix well and set aside.
Combine vinegar, water and sugar in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add reserved spice bag, reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes, until spices have infused the liquid. Add vegetables and boil gently for 10 minutes, or until vegetables are heated through and slightly tender. Remove from heat. Discard spice bag.
Pack hot vegetables into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Ladle hot pickling liquid into jar to cover vegetables leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary, by adding hot pickling liquid. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
Process jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.