Super Spicy Pickled Celery

It all started over the Christmas holidays. You see, my family all lives out in Alberta so my husband and I needed to start alternating where we spent our Christmas in order to keep it fair. And this year, we spent it here in Ontario. It was an amazing holiday, but there were a few days where I felt a little bit of the ol' homesickness start to creep into the everyday. For quite a few years I had been going to my Nona's house for Christmas. It was usually a small gathering, just my mom, aunt and uncle and my sister Deb. Well Deb and I started to create a few of our own traditions and one of them was the Christmas Caesar.

So I found myself thinking about family, about my nona and sisters, nieces and nephews - you know, all of the really important things. And then I started to crave my sister's Caesar's. This all led to me experimenting with pickled celery recipes, which you may have read about here within the pages of my blog. I came up with two recipes that I thought were really good. One of them perhaps a touch too spicy for the every day consumer, so I thought I would share it here on these pages. If you like spicy, then get ready!

Super Spicy Pickled Celery

3 bunches of celery

6 cups pickling vinegar

2 cups water

1/2 cup pickling salt

1 tsp dill seed (per jar)

1 garlic clove (peeled and whole) per jar

1- 3 whole chili peppers (per jar)

Sterilize your jars and warm your lids following safe canning instructions.

Wash your celery thoroughly and then chop the stalks to the desired length depending on the shape of your jar and place into jars leaving a minimum of a 1/2" clearance.

Combine the water, vinegar and salt in a non reactive pot, stir well and cover. Place over medium high heat and bring to a boil ensuring that all the salt dissolves.

Place dill, garlic and chili peppers in each jar with the celery and pour the vinegar mixture into the jars, leaving 1/2" headspace. Run a plastic knife down the inside of the jars to release any trapped air bubbles and then wipe the rims and threads with a damp close and seal with your already warmed lids.

Place the jars in your hot water bath and process at a rolling boil for 10 minutes. Remove from the hot water bath and allow jars to cool completely on the counter. This will age nicely in approximately 2 weeks.

For your reference I used 2 whole dried chilli peppers in mine and they were what I would consider super spicy. Yields between 5-7, 500ml jars.