Pickled Long Beans

Ingredients:
1 bunch long beans (aka yard long beans, Chinese long beans)
1 Korean or Chinese hot pepper, cut into strips
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
3 tablespoons shoaxing wine
1/4 cup pickling salt
4 cloves garlic
1 inch knob ginger, cut into 4 slices
1 tablespoon broken star anise
8 black peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks


Directions:
Evenly divide the spices, ginger, pepper and garlic between 2 wide mouth quart jars. Cut the ends off the beans and divide into two even bunches. Fold them in half and fit into each jar. Bring the vinegar, salt, water and shaoxing to low boil. Stir to dissolve the salt. Pour the mixture over the jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Seal. Process using the water bath mixture for 10 minutes.

Yield:
2 quarts

Note: A great source for canning information is the Blue Book guide to preserving. I highly recommend it for learning how to can. Here is a bunch of other canning books and equipment I find useful.

My thoughts:

Some of my favorite dishes call for pickled long beans. Normally the recipes call for a quick pickle but some times it is difficult to find long beans at the market when the mood strikes so when I saw them recently, I picked up a bunch. Once I got them home I started to wonder if I could make a shelf-stable pickle out of them so I could have them on hand for when the mood strikes. I put in the appropriate spices and made this pickle. It is perfect in the dishes I would have made with the quick pickle and now I have extra.