Following my recent Tamale Party, I had a couple dozen jalapeños leftover that didn’t make it into the smorgasbord of salsas, sauces and chilli-infused tequila bombs going around. The leftover jalaps were starting to show their age, and because I can’t bear to see food – especially precious jalapeños, so hard to find in the UK – go to waste, I decided to pickle them.

This is a dead simple recipe that takes about 10 minutes to make, including slicing time. And the result is better than any pickled jalapeño I’ve ever had. The recipe includes sugar in the brine, which I was a little wary of, but as it turns out, I love the slight sweetness. They’re obviously great with Mexican food, but I’m also digging them with basically anything that involves tahini: hummus, falafel with tahini drizzle, tahini licked off a spoon.  In fact, I’m about as addicted to tahini as I am to pickles these days. It’s just as well they go so well together.

Next time I’ll be adding carrots and onions to the pickle. All I need is a good source of jalapeños at a bargain price. I am aware that the source could have been me had I been industrious enough to grow my own jalapeños, but I wasn’t. Such is my gardening life!