Pickles, pickles, pickles of every kind… that’s how the last few months have been going — pickled kohlrabi, pickled lemons, pickled cabbage, pickled onions, and now pickled eggs! Pickled peppers, pickled cucumber, and pickled okra are yet to come, and you can expect recipes for these once summer is in full swing.

Pickled eggs in particular hold a special place in my heart. One of my old hang-outs in Cambridge/Boston was a lounge called The B-Side; whereas most bars serve some array of nuts, chips, and pretzels as bar snacks, The B-Side served — you guessed it — pickled eggs. I have very fond memories of sitting with my good friend Jordan, talking music, sipping cocktails, and eating pickled eggs…

When I started perusing Linda Zeidrich’s, The Joy of Pickling (one of my favorite cookbooks), I was immediately attracted to the recipes for pickled eggs. I knew it would be one of the first things that I tried. Whereas The B-Side served classic pickled eggs, I decided to take a little more adventurous route and make these Indian-style hot and spicy pickled eggs. These pickles are relatively quick too — they’re ready in a week rather than a month or even… a thousand years.

Anyhow, the pickles turned out great — a little spicy, vinegary, a bit salty — and with a wonderful texture! Some ideas to serve these are:

- plain, as an appetizer with cocktails
- sliced into rounds, served on crackers/toasts
- crumbled over rice with cilantro or parsley
- crumbled and mixed with cottage cheese as a dip

Do you pickle? If so, do you have it posted on your blog? Leave a comment with a link, and I’ll collect everything I receive for a future post in the next few weeks and post a digest — I’m so curious as to what everyone else is doing!
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Hot and Spicy Pickled Eggs
Adapted from The Joy of Pickling

4 hard cooked eggs, peeled (pour boiling water over raw eggs and allow to sit, covered, for 14 minutes, then peel)
2/3 T. pickling salt (any non-iodized salt will do, i.e. sea salt)
2 fresh green chile peppers (serrano, jalepeno)
1/2 c. cider vinegar
3 T. water
1 t. minced fresh ginger
1 t. black mustard seeds
1 t. crushed black pepper
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped

Special Equipment: 1 pint jar with lid

With a fork, pierce each egg through the white to the yolk about 6 times. Put the eggs into a 1 pint jar. In a nonreactive saucepan, combine the remaining ingredients. Bring them to a boil, reduce heat, and cover. Simmer 15 minutes.

Let the liquid cool a bit, then pour over the eggs. Cap the jar, and refrigerate for at least 1 week to allow the eggs to absorb the flavor. Refrigerated, the eggs will keep for several weeks.