We were lunching with a friend a few weeks back while his mother Jan was visiting from Canada. We got to talking about pickles and how Jan traditionally makes a huge batch for the year every fall. This sparked thoughts of our own adventures with the traditional style of pickling in Mexico – escabeche.
Before we knew it, we were back from the market with a bunch of ingredients in hand to pickle – cucumbers, fresh chilies, cactus, and shrimp.
The jalapeño and xcatik chilies were paired with nopal (or cactus), scallion bulbs and carrot and pickled in the style of a traditional jalapeño escabeche.
The cucumbers were prepared using the same escabeche brine, but flavored with lemongrass and dried chiles for a little fire. Despite initial concerns about the cucumbers not meeting the high standard of a more typical pickling cucumber, we’ve since put our worries to rest after sneaking a taste last week. They are fantastic.
As for the shrimp escabeche, there isn’t much to say except try them in a bloody mary with a glug of the pickle juice for a little kick. We did and it was delish!