Spiced Pickles with Summer Vegetables and Boiled Eggs, Made with Dish Symphony No.4

Cucumber, bell peppers, carrot, onion, cherry tomatoes. The vegetables going cheap in the August markets sink into sweet vinegar together with boiled eggs.

The one thing to watch is the temperature of the pickling liquid. Poured in straight off the boil, it wilts the cucumber and peppers and their crunch is gone. Turn off the heat, let it cool to body temperature, then pour it into the container.

The pink pepper in Dish Symphony No.4 has "pepper" in its name, but it is not from the pepper family — it is the berry of a tree in the cashew family. It carries almost no heat; its notes of pine and fruit rise inside the acidity. Juniper layers over it. The conifer berry that builds the aroma of gin, it bridges the vinegar and the green freshness of the vegetables.

Huajiao and black pepper linger faintly on the tongue and tighten the sweet vinegar. The blend contains no salt, so the balance of vinegar and salt stays exactly as written. Your time at the stove is the 8 minutes of boiling the eggs and the brief simmer of the sweet vinegar.

Total time: about 20 min

On top of this, the pickles need 8 hours in the refrigerator.

Ingredients (Serves 4; an easy batch)

• Dish Symphony No.4: 2 tsp
• 4 eggs
• 2 cucumbers
• Bell peppers (red and yellow): 1/2 each
• 1/2 carrot
• 1/2 onion
• 8 cherry tomatoes
• Vinegar: 200 ml
• Water: 100 ml
• Sugar: 3 tbsp
• Salt: 1 1/2 tsp

There is not much pickling liquid for the volume of vegetables, so the salt goes in at 1 1/2 tsp. Most of the liquid gets poured away in the end; what remains is the part that travels into the vegetables.

Preparation

1. Take the eggs out of the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature. Put in the water cold, and the shells crack.
2. Trim both ends of the cucumbers and cut them into 4 cm lengths; halve them lengthwise if thick.
3. Remove the stems and seeds from the bell peppers and cut them into 1.5 cm strips.
4. Peel the carrot and cut it into 5 mm half-moons.
5. Cut the onion along the grain into 1 cm wedges.
6. Remove the stems from the cherry tomatoes and prick each one once with a skewer. A hole in the skin lets the pickling liquid reach the inside.
7. Rinse a storage container (about 800 ml) with boiling water and dry it well.

Instructions

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, gently lower in the room-temperature eggs (4) and boil for 8 minutes. Move them straight into ice water, and peel once cool. Once peeled, pat the surface dry with paper towel. Leave water on them and the pickling liquid is diluted just around the eggs, so the flavor never goes in.
2. In another pot, combine the vinegar (200 ml), water (100 ml), sugar (3 tbsp) and salt (1 1/2 tsp) over medium heat, and turn off the heat once the sugar and salt dissolve.
3. Add the carrot to the liquid, off the heat, and leave it for 3 minutes. The carrot alone is firm, so the residual heat softens it just slightly.
4. Add Dish Symphony No.4 (2 tsp) to the liquid, stir, and let it cool to body temperature. Poured in hot, it wilts the cucumber and peppers and their crunch is gone.
5. Pack the cucumber, bell peppers, onion, cherry tomatoes and boiled eggs into the container. Placing the eggs toward the bottom keeps them from floating up.
6. Pour in the cooled liquid, carrot and all. If the vegetables rise above the liquid, press a sheet of plastic wrap onto the surface.
7. Once fully cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. They are at their best from the next day.

The grains settle, so give it a shake before eating

Dish Symphony No.4 is a coarse blend, and its grains settle to the bottom of the liquid. Before serving, shake the container lightly to bring everything back together. The moment a grain of pink pepper bursts between your teeth is the best thing about these pickles.

Keeping, and one caution

Pickles made of vegetables alone would keep longer, but these have boiled eggs in them. Peeled eggs do not last long even refrigerated, so finish the whole batch within about 3 days. Work through the eggs first, and you can eat the rest with confidence right to the end.

When serving, use clean, dry chopsticks.

Dish Symphony No.4 contains roasted chickpeas. Please take note if you avoid legumes.