Saturday, March 19, 2011

ATCHARANG SITAO (Pickled Long Beans)- KCC Theme for March

For this months challenge our host Erika of ivoryhut challenged Kulinarya members to "showcase" vegetables....the front and center. There is a plethora of Filipino dish that calls for just vegetables, i chose atchara which i believe is a favorite (well, it's our favorite) especially as a side dish for grilled or fried meat or seafoods.

Atchara basically means pickled vegetables. The most popular atchara is the green papaya which i love but i opted to pickle long beans also called string beans. This recipe works great for almost all vegetables, such as okra, radish, peppers and more.

Ingredients:

2 C apple cider vinegar
2 C sugar ( or less if you want it tart)
2 T salt
1 t whole peppercorns
1 lb long beans (usually sold in bundles)
4 cloves garlic, julienned
1 medium sized carrots (julienned)
1 knob of ginger (julienned)
1 medium red onions or sweet onions (julienned)


1. Bring vinegar, sugar and salt to a boil in a large saucepan.
2. Arrange all the vegetables, spices in a cleaned sterilized jar.
3. Pour hot vinegar liquid over the beans and cover.
4. Set aside to cool.
5. Place cooled jars in the refrigerator.
The atchara is ready in a day or two and will keep refrigerated for several weeks which never happen in our house especially during "grilling season"! Oh it's gone in few days!

Some recipes call for cooking the vegetables first, and that may be necessary if you’re canning them. But cooking them first makes for mushy pickles, so I prefer to skip that step. Just make sure to really wash the beans really good!  I believe the fresher the long beans, the crunchier the pickle.







Thanks, Erika for a great challenge!

16 comments:

  1. I never had pickled string beans before. BUt I would imagine that this will go well with my fried pork chops haha.
    thanks for sharing PIA!

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  2. I love atchara but never thought of making it with beans before. I am in so proud of everyones contributions this KCC. I wish i have some time to get mine going. Looks fantastic Pia.

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  3. That looks really fresh and crisp. Pickles always make me eat more than I should!

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  4. I would never have thought of making Atchara with beans. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I will definitely try it.

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  5. Wow. that's a great idea. I love sitaw and atchara; I must try it ASAP.

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  6. Hi, Malou..oh yessss!!! porkchop at atcharang sitao..sounds good to me;)

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  7. Thanks, Katherine! It's okay...better late than never lol! A friend of mine from northern luzon introduced me to making atchara by using another kind of veggies other than green papaya.

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  8. I love Achara but I've never had Achara made of sitaw before. New dish like this really excites me to try. Thank you for sharing this dish Pia!

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  9. Haha! Annie you're not alone, that's exactly how i feel w/ atchara...you get to eat more especially if you have fried fish...goodness i'm craving for this too! lol!

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  10. Thanks, Rowena! I think you'd love this too. Thanks to my old friend who introduced me to make atchara using other veggies.

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  11. Yum, what a colorful looking atchara! Haven't tried sitaw as atchara, but this looks delicious!

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  12. I just made atchara last week and also made some with peppers but never thought to pickle sitaw - this is so awesome. Definitely going to try this!

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  13. Pia, that jar looks so tempting....I can imagine myself finishing that jar in one day with some BBQ marinated meat, just thinking about it makes me drool for some=) No rice just those two!

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  14. Hi, Dahlia..give this a try..i'm actually making them this weekend just in time for the grilling season;)

    Caroline, peppers sounds good, now that i haven't tried but will give it a try during summer. Thanks for the idea.

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  15. LOL! @ Althea...so true, so true. I can see that..eating this w/ bbq or inihaw na baboy! OMG..i can't wait for the grilling season;)

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  16. How beautiful Pia!!!!

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