Covid-19 MCO : Day #50 (Pickled Green Chilies)

It is day number five oh already and to those of us who have returned to work/reopened for business, it feels like things are back to almost normal except for the face masks, temperature screening and social distancing at public places.

I worked on Monday and Tuesday. Monday not surprisingly did not feel toxic at all (I had expected double or triple dose of Monday blues). There was a lot to do and I was fully focused from the time I got in until time to go home. It left me mentally exhausted. By the time I got home, I was totally pooped.

Today I am staying home because I felt rather alarmed at the number of cars and people that I saw over the last two days. We are not safe yet from the Covid-19 virus and the almost back to normal activities around us pose as a health hazard. But next Monday, I will be back to work again as I still have many things to do. 

This morning I ordered some vegetables from the TTDI market via Grabmart. Online marketing is the way to go (where possible) since many people fail to observe social distancing at supermarkets (my observation lah).

Among the items I purchased were 4 packets of green chilies. I could not get these from Jaya Grocer.

That's right, I wanted to make pickled green chilies. It is my favorite condiment when I eat wanton mee or wat tan hor and when I dine at Chinese restaurants.

Whenever I eat wanton mee at Annie 1 (which feels like centuries ago!), I will always load up on the pickled green chilies.

When making pickled green chilies, you must use rice vinegar or if you absolutely cannot find rice vinegar, then distilled vinegar is the next alternative. Don't use apple cider vinegar. The taste will be different.

I have been using this brand for as long as I can remember.

I washed, dried and sliced up all the green chilies. Put into a glass container because I will be pouring the pickling liquid into it.

The pickling liquid is made up of rice vinegar, sugar and salt.  The amount of sugar and salt is a matter of personal preference. Adjust to your own taste.

The way I do the pickling process is that I boil the pickling liquid and pour the boiling liquid into the container of chilies.

I noted that most recipes do not call for the boiling of the liquid. The reason why I boil it is because it speeds up the pickling process and you can practically eat the pickled chilies within an hour.

Just leave it to cool before you transfer the pickled chilies into containers for storage in the fridge.

The color of the chilies will change from bright green to this...

...within 30 minutes and then....

...to this familiar color. You can eat this right away and store the rest in glass jars.

I made a whole lot of pickled chilies. My jars are 300ml capacity and I managed to fill up two bottles plus one more which was 1/3 full.

I eat this as a condiment with my slimming food - steamed food heh..heh...

Today's lunch of steamed broccoli, chicken fillet and ginger strips. 

I like to drizzle some oyster sauce onto the broccoli, heap the marinated chicken fillet on top with some ginger strips and steam for about 8 minutes.

I have forgotten how good this tastes! I haven't steamed food like this in a long time.

I will share the recipe for pickled green chilies just in case anybody wants to make. Halve the recipe if you don't want to make so much.

Pickled Green Chilies

Recipe source : PH

Note : Halve the recipe for a smaller batch

Ingredients :

- 400g green chilies (about 19 chilies)
- 500ml rice vinegar (I used Narcissus brand)
- 5 tbsp sugar (or to your own taste)
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to your own taste)

Method :
1. Wash, dry and slice chilies. Put into a non-reactive container like glass or ceramic. Set aside.
2. Put vinegar, sugar and salt into a stainless steel/glass/ceramic saucepan.
3. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt (taste to adjust the balance of sweet, sour and salty). Then bring to a boil.
4. Pour the boiling liquid into the container of cut chilies. Ensure that chilies are immersed in the liquid.
5. Leave to cool completely before transferring into glass containers for storage in the fridge.