Picklese (Pikliz)

I loved pickled vegetables and I love spicy foods. Haitian picklese, essentially a Habanero infused cabbage slaw, fits into this culinary niche perfectly. I honestly put the stuff onto or next to everything I eat. Recipes are easy to find online but I made a few changes to my version that while keeping the flavor essence of Haitian picklese produces a vibrant magenta hue.

Ingredients

6 Scotch Bonnets or Habanero Peppers
2 cups thinly sliced Red Cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced Carrots
1/4 cup thinly sliced Red Onions
4 whole Cloves
1 tsp Salt
8 to 10 Peppercorns
3 cups White Vinegar

Quarter the Scotch Bonnets, removing the seeds and stems. Salt the cabbage and let it sit, the cabbage softens and shrinks down considerably. Since I tend to oversalt, I rinse it off before shoving it in the jar. Put all the ingredients in a quart size jar (preferably wide-mouthed) and top with the vinegar. Close it tightly, put it in a refrigerator, and then resist the temptation to eat any for a minimum of one day.

I use a mandolin (not the musical instrument) on the cabbage and onions then switch to julienne for the carrots. It's just a personal preference for a slight textural difference. I'm not sure it matters once everything is pickled but I find knife work soothing which is probably in keeping with my lawful evil quiz results.

In addition, quantities should all end in -ish...for example the batch I'm making has about three cups of cabbage or 2-ish. Pickling in this household is less an exercise in precision and more of a jar-packing, extra vinegar sloshing thing.

That's it, as promised, my pickly process.