Name: Pickled Green Chilies and Garlic
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 25
Ingredients: 8 oz Serrano chilies ((washed and pat dry with paper towels) (225g)); 2 bulbs garlic; 4 oz bird’s eye chilies ((stalks removed, wash and pat dry with paper towels) (115g)); 2 cups rice vinegar (or distilled white vinegar with 5% acidity (480ml)); 2 tsp sugar; 1 tsp kosher salt

Pickled Green Chilies and Garlic are wonderful eaten with noodles. This spicy condiment is often served with stir fried noodles in Malaysia and Singapore.

Pickled Green Chilies are a spicy condiment often served with stirred or fried noodles in Malaysia and Singapore. They are a must-have with stirred wonton noodles, Kuala Lumpur style Hokkien fried noodles, and Cantonese Style Fried noodles. I like it even with soupy noodles and usually have a small jar in the refrigerator almost year round.

When properly preserved, Pickled Green Chilies do last a long time. Mine never last that long. They are usually gone within a month or two. Whole pickled bird’s eye chilies last longer as they are not cut and are more sturdy. These spicy chilies are great pickled as they do mellow out in the vinegar.

Adding Garlic or Shallots

Sometimes I throw in a few cloves of garlic or shallots to help flavor the vinegar. Garlic and shallots loose some of their pungency when pickled. They are quite tasty after hanging out in the vinegar solution for a few days. I usually consume them within 2 weeks when they still have a little “bite” and crunch left in them.

Vinegars

There are all kinds of vinegars out there. The ones commonly found here are white distilled vinegar and apple cider vinegar both at the recommended 5% acidity for pickling. I have always used rice vinegar in cooking and pickling as that is what my Mom and a lot of others use in Malaysia.

A closer check on the rice vinegars found here show that they vary between 4.2% to 4.5% acidity. I have used them with no adverse effects but please do read both these articles on making pickles and food acidity and processing methods by the University of Minnesota for ensuring safe canned foods.

White Distilled Vinegar and Immature Garlic

You have probably noticed that some of my pickled garlic cloves have a blue tinge to them. I recently read that this can happen using white distilled vinegar, type of salt, and immature garlic. According to this Safe Methods to Store, Preserve, and Enjoy Garlic article, garlic contains anthocyanins, water-soluble pigments that can turn blue or purple under acidic conditions. I have never had this experience using rice vinegar and I was eager to test it out.

I had no idea if the garlic I used were immature but I did use white distilled vinegar with 5% acidity and regular store bought sea salt with no iodine. After just several hours in the vinegar, some of the garlic cloves actually started turning blue!

Science Behind the Blue Tinge

Further search on the internet lead me to this article on The New York Times by Harold McGee. It appears that under the right conditions, sulfur compounds and enzymes in garlic react with each other to make pyrroles which are clusters of carbon-nitrogen rings. These ring structures absorb particular wavelengths of light, and thus appear colored. Wow…that’s a whole lot of scientific information! The bottom line is that these pigments are perfectly safe to eat. Phew…there you have it! Make some blue or green garlic today to impress or freak out your friends. 😉

Similar Tools Used in Making This Pickled Green Chilies and Garlic

This post contains affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy here.

• Ball mason 12 Jar with Lid – regular mouth
• Prepworks by Progressive Appetizer Tongs, Stainless Steel – Set of 2