"Pikliz"
|
Keep in mind, this is not for the faint of heart. Meaning if you can't handle the heat, then this is not for you. A lot of Caribbean food are into hot, spicy stuff. Scotch bonnet peppers, habenero peppers, chili peppers, etc... As Haitians, we like to call it, "Piman." We even have a Piman Sauce we can drizzle on foods whenever we want to kick it up a notch if pikliz isn't available. Some people like pikliz extremely spicy, others don't. I like mines when it's just enough to make my nose run, but not unbearably hot that I can't taste my food afterwards. You can always adjust it to your liking based on how much hot peppers you use. With all Haitian dishes, there are various ways in making each recipe. In any case, I'd like to share with you my version of this well known Haitian relish and I hope you give this one a try.
Ingredients:
Directions:
1. To make things easier, I prefer to use pre-packaged angel hair coleslaw which is basically green cabbage. You can purchase the ones with carrots but I heavily advise you to stay away from the ones that included purple cabbage. It will definitely cause the pikliz to change color. In a bowl, pour the cabbage and remove any large chunks or blades then discard those pieces.
2. To the bowl of cabbage, add 1 cup matchstick carrots (another aspect that makes this easier than chopping up carrots), 1/2 of a thinly sliced green pepper, 1/2 of a thinly sliced red pepper, and 1 thinly sliced onion. Mix the contents well. If you plan on eating this right away, there really is no need to add in cloves. It's optional. You can definitely add a few if you do plan on letting it go through the pickling process.
3. After mixing the vegetables thoroughly, pack contents into a 1 quart sized jar. It may seem like it won't fit, but if you pack it tightly, everything will get in the jar just fine. When you pour the vinegar solution in later, the cabbage will slightly shrink and you'll have more space to add in the rest if needed.
|
4. In a blender, preferably a small one, pour the juices of 4 limes, 1 1/2 cups of vinegar, and 2 tbsps. of salt. Depending on your preference for heat, add 2 - 5 scotch bonnet or habenero peppers with stems removed. I added 3 but one of my peppers was really small so technically, it was about 2 1/2. The more peppers you add, the hotter it will be. Blend everything together and pour the vinegar solution into the jar.
Normally, the hot peppers are diced up finely and mixed in with the vegetables before pouring in the vinegar. I find this method of blending it much easier and works very well. The blender chops it up fine enough so that you don't accidentally end up with a large piece of raw heat on your tongue. This has happened to me in the past one too many times and it wasn't fun.
If you're not going to let this pickle, which most of the time my family never does, you can get away with using much less vinegar, especially if it's still in a bowl. Doing it in a jar requires more vinegar because of the height. You want enough vinegar to cover all the vegetables. If doing it in a bowl, you can cut it down to 2 limes and 1/4 cup vinegar because the contents will be low enough to be fully submerged in the liquid. You can also adjust the salt according to your personal preference.
If you're not going to let this pickle, which most of the time my family never does, you can get away with using much less vinegar, especially if it's still in a bowl. Doing it in a jar requires more vinegar because of the height. You want enough vinegar to cover all the vegetables. If doing it in a bowl, you can cut it down to 2 limes and 1/4 cup vinegar because the contents will be low enough to be fully submerged in the liquid. You can also adjust the salt according to your personal preference.
5. Let the pikliz pickle for a few days (3 - 5 or even longer) or enjoy it whenever you want. It can be kept outside but if refrigerated, it'll last much longer. Try it with "bannann peze", "griot", "rice", or anything you want to add some heat.
Check out the video demonstration video below!
What do you think of this recipe? How do you make your pikliz and what do you put it on?
Let me know and comment below!
Let me know and comment below!