Haitian Pikliz
Haitian Pikliz is a popular Haitian condiment, althoughit can be eaten as a straight meal too. Pikliz consists of pickled cabbage,bell peppers, onions, garlic, white vinegar, scotch bonnet peppers, andcarrots. The scotch bonnet peppers make this a particularly spicy condiment,which does a good job of enhancing the flavor of fried foods, beans, and rice.That is why you’ll often see pikliz served with these types of foods,especially fried plantains, fried beef, and fried pork. Lots of Caribbean foods contain rich condiments likepikliz. It adds a unique set of textures and ingredients to your primary meals.Of course, you need to enjoy spicy foods to truly enjoy Haitian pikliz. Youcould try preparing it without the scotch bonnet peppers if you don’t likespicy foods, but then you’d be ruining the essence of the condiment.When the pikliz is in your mouth, it will be slightlycrunchy but not difficult to chew at all. The scotch bonnet peppers are slicedthin enough to where they won’t burn your mouth or feel too overwhelming toswallow. The vinegar will be added to the mix to give it that pickled taste. Ittakes up to a week to marinate the condiment, so you should prepare a lot ofpikliz if you enjoy it. Then you won’t have to keep waiting a week before youcan use it.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups of Shredded Cabbage
- 1 Large Carrot
- 1 Cup of Bell Peppers (Any Color)
- 1 Onion
- 2 Scallions
- 6 Scotch Bonnet Peppers
- 4 Cloves Garlic
- 1 tsp Salt
- 12-14 Peppercorns
- 2 Cups of Vinegar (see note)
- ½ Lime Juice
Instructions
- You can begin by slicing up the cabbage. If you purchasedit shredded already, then it should not be difficult to slice it up. When youslice the cabbage or any other ingredients in these steps, make sure youproduce thin slices. Do this for the bell peppers, onion, scallions, and scotchbonnet peppers. Do not use a food processor.
- Slice the garlic cloves into square pieces. Grate thelarge carrot into smaller, thinner pieces. Mix these ingredients with all theother sliced ingredients that you produced in the first step. You can use abowl to mix them all together. Add the salt and peppercorns to the mix as well.
- Once you have the ingredients mixed together, the nextstep is to pack them into a large glass bottle. Don’t be afraid to press downon the ingredients so that you can fit as much of them into your glass bottleas possible. Add some white vinegar to the top of the packed ingredients beforeplacing the cover back on the bottle.
- You have two options at this point. You can eat it rightaway or give it time to marinate. The tastiest option would be to let theingredients marinate for roughly five days. It might be difficult to wait thatlong, but it is worth the wait. The sensation of the flavors on your tonguewill be wonderful by that point.
- The pikliz can last for a long time in the bottle. Thewhite vinegar you added will help to preserve the food. You could even leavethe bottle out of the refrigerator for many days and the pikliz will stay fine.But if you want it to last for several months, then you should put the bottlein the refrigerator. However, the pikliz won’t taste as good if it is cooledfor too long because it will lose the heat and spice elements of the dish.Â
Video
Notes
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