I am a pickle person. My lifelong love of kosher dills expanded, after moving to Japan, to include all manner of salted and vinegared treats. The world of pickles is massive, I realized, encompassing still-crisp quick pickled radishes and 100-year-old umeboshi, cucumbers cloaked in rice bran (nukazuke) and daikon mixed with sake lees (kasu, the rice mash left after making sake). In Japan, any traditional meal has an official pickle course. There is something very right about that.
So nowadays when I go to a taco stand and discover they serve alongside their tacos exactly the kind of spicy pickled carrots I like to eat, I don't feel bad for filling up several of those little lidded plastic containers to take home with me. It's not easy finding the right pickled carrots. They are often too sweet or too onion-heavy or flecked with too much oregano. After devouring a pile of just-right carrots alongside my burrito one night, I realized I could probably skip the middleman and just try making my own.
I gathered the spices, sliced up the carrots, and a couple vinegar-scented hours later, they were ready to be poured into an old mayonnaise jar and stored in the fridge, enough for at least two weeks of unlimited spicy pickled carrot snacking. No taco required.
Spicy Pickled Carrots
2 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced at an angle into 1/4 inch thick pieces
5 whole cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
10 Turkish bay leaves (or 5 California bay leaves)
8 peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water
6 oz. whole pickled jalapenos
Pour oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and saute the garlic. Add carrots and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add vinegar, bay leaves, peppercorns and salt. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add water and jalapenos and bring to a simmer again for another 10 mintues.
Let mixture cool completely. Transfer the carrots and cooking liquid into a covered container, discarding the bay leaves, peppercorns and garlic cloves if desired. Carrots will keep in the refrigerator indefinitely, although I usually eat them within 2 weeks.
Mmmmm, I love me some pickled carrots. Do you ever go to the Yuca's on Hollywood? They have a tupperware box full of spicy pickled carrots, onions, and poblano peppers. All I have to say to that is: Hootie? Hoo!