Pickled deviled eggs
12 to 15 large eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 cup plus 2 tbsp Frank’s RedHot sauce
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp white vinegar
Mayonnaise to taste (texture should be creamy enough to pipe)
Heart beets
4 1/2 lb beets, preferably pink (about 24 small to medium beets)
1 cup white-wine vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp canning salt
2 tsp each pink peppercorns, black peppercorns and juniper berries
Method
Deviled pickled eggs
Prep time: 30 minutes
Ready in: One week, to allow for steeping
To pickle the eggs, pack them into a clean 1-litre jar along with the Cajun spice. In a medium-sized pot, bring the Frank’s RedHot sauce and vinegar to a boil, stir well and pour the mixture over the eggs.
Screw the lid on the jar, let contents cool, then refrigerate for up to three months. For the best flavour, give the eggs at least a week to pickle before using them.
To make the deviled eggs, halve each pickled egg and transfer the yolks to a medium-sized bowl. Mix the yolks with mayonnaise and a little of the brine from the jar, then pipe the mixture back into the whites, arrange on a platter and serve.
Makes 12 to 15 eggs.
Heart beets
Prep time: 45 minutes
Ready in: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Put the beets in a large pot and cover with water. Cover the pot, bring water to a boil and cook the beets until just tender (about 20 to 45 minutes, depending on their size).
In the meantime, sterilize two canning jars according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Drain the beets and rinse them in cold water until they’re cool enough to handle, then slip off their skins. Slice the beets into ¾-inch slices and cut them into heart shapes using cookie cutters of various sizes. (Reserve scraps for a soup.)
In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, water, sugar and salt to a boil. Put 1 tsp of the pink peppercorns, black peppercorns and juniper berries into each of the prepared jars, then pack in as many beets as possible to within a generous ½ inch of the rim. Fill the jars with hot brine to within ½ inch of the rim, remove air bubbles by poking into the beets with a long, plastic tool such as a chopstick and top up with brine if necessary. Seal and heat-process the jars by submerging them in a pot of hot water, covering the pot once the boiling point is reached and boiling them for 30 minutes.
Makes 2 500-mL jars.