I had a conversation with Jennifer Halicki about what to do with those cute little jalapenos. My suggestion was to do a very simple pickle, just putting the jalapenos in a jar (with or without stems) and cover them with vinegar. Leave them for a week or forever, they’ll keep indefinitely as long as you keep topping up the vinegar. This was the old Southern standby for making hot pepper vinegar to season fall and winter greens like turnips, collards and mustard. And it works fine with jalapenos.
Then just the other day I opened an email from Import Food, a company on the west coast that imports primarily food from Thailand. They offered a little more complex version of this peppered vinegar idea. They were recommending the Thai chiles they sell, but it would be just as delicious with your jalapenos or leftover cayenne peppers.
In their words: “Spice up your food with this simple, homemade heat. The combination of sour vinegar with hot Thai chiles is a common condiment in Thailand (called “nam som”), but this goes along great with American food too–especially southern favorites like collard greens, fried chicken, green tomatoes, etc.”
Preparation:
Fill your glass jar with red and green Thai chile peppers, stemmed, filling to 1-2 inches from top of jar. Bring 1 cup white wine vinegar or cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until salt and sugar are dissolved. Remove from heat, and let stand for about 5 minutes.
Pour hot mixture over peppers in jar. Cover and chill 3 weeks, this allows the peppers to fire up the vinegar mixture. The longer it sits, the spicier it becomes. Store in refrigerator for 6 months or more.