Atchara - Pickled green papaya

Atchara!

 

I  am a huge fan of pickling things and am on a mission to use green papayas after our trees froze in last week's polar vortex, leaving a ton of green fruits that I don't think will ever ripen.

Put that all together you get atchara – a pickled green papaya dish from in the Philippines. I guess there are lots of regional variations of this from neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.

It’s a refreshing combination of spicy sweet and sour that nicely accents the salty savory dishes from the islands and archipelagos of Southeast Asia.

I found the recipe at this pickling blog.

http://jarheadpickling.blogspot.com/search?q=papaya

I followed it pretty much word for word except that I did larger but very thin slices of vegetables rather than grating or julienning them because it was easier for me. I used a mandolin and ripped through everything quickly but if you don't have a mandolin and aren't a professional with a knife I would go ahead and grate everything.

I’m sure if you wanted to mess around a bit with other vegetables to accompany the papaya that it would work just fine – I even saw one recipe that called for raisins.

Atchara is served as a side dish for all kinds of things in the Philippines including fried fish, grilled meats and rice and noodle dishes. I like it as an accompaniment to takeout pot stickers, dumplings and egg rolls.  It can also spice up a sandwich

What you need:

• 1 large green papaya
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 1 jalapeno (or more if you want it hotter)
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger;
• 1/3 cup salt
• 2 cups white vinegar;
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar;
• 2 tablespoons peppercorns;

What you do:

Slice the papaya, onion, carrots, garlic and jalopeno as thinly as possible

            The mandolin saves a lot of time and a few cut fingers or just grate it

Sprinkle the salt over the green papaya in a bowl. Mix it up with your hands to evenly cover the papaya slices and put in the fridge overnight.

Put the other vegetables in a bowl or bag in the fridge

The next day, pour the excess water out of the bowl and put the papaya in a strainer. Press out any remaining water and then rinse off the salt. 

Put the vinegar, a large pinch of salt, peppercorns, ginger, garlic and chilli (if using) in a pot and simmer the brine for 5 minutes and then cover it and let it cool a bit.

Fill clean jars with the papaya, onion, pepper and carrot, then top them off with the pickling brine

Cap the jars and store them in the fridge – technically you can keep atchara at room temperature but it will last longer in the fridge. If you want to do the room temperature thing for some reason then I would sterilise whatever jars you are using by putting tin foil on the top and sticking them in the oven at 350 degrees for 90 minutes and then let them cool in the oven over night. DO NOT TAKE THE JARS OUT OF THE OVEN EARLY because cooling the glass too quickly can shatter it.