Escabeche

Make one jar

• 2 Anaheim chiles or 4 jalapeños, cut into rounds
• 2 carrots, sliced on an angle
• ½ white onion, sliced thick
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 1 cup white or apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 bay leaves, a pinch of dried oregano, a few peppercorns
• 1 tbsp neutral oil

Warm the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, and chiles and cook for about three minutes — just until the edges soften and the kitchen starts to smell like it. Add the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, and the bay, oregano, and peppercorns. Bring to a simmer, then take it off the heat immediately. Pour everything, brine included, into a jar. Cool on the counter, then refrigerate. It's good in an hour and better on day three. The ratio underneath this is the part worth keeping: one cup vinegar, one cup water, one tablespoon salt, one teaspoon sugar. That brine works on any crisp vegetable you have too much of.

Keeps in the refrigerator for three weeks, and the brine outlasts the vegetables. Don't throw the brine out — it belongs on beans and in dressings.

Use it this week