Chai-Spiced Pickled Grapes

A few weeks ago? Several weeks ago? Somewhere around that time a dear friend of mine was struggling with what she was supposed to do with a bumper crop of concord grapes. She was planning on "breaking up with grapes" which is what she has a tendency to do when she has a food that is bothering her or giving her trouble.

To my friend: Don't shake your head at me, *you* know who you are and you know it's true, and you know I love you and I'm just picking on you.

Anyway, she was getting an endless list of suggestions about how to handle her grapes of wrath. I suggested pickling them, not because I had ever heard of a pickled grape, and certainly not because I had ever tasted one, but because the idea popped in my head and I thought it sounded good. So then I decided that I was going to try it out for myself. Of course, by the time I got to it concord grape season was over, but I found that black grapes worked very well.

Pickling is cool because you can do extremely small batches, it's super easy, there are an endless combination of flavors to play with, and the results keep for awhile due to the vinegar preserving the contents of the jar.

I started thinking about what kind of a brine I would pickle my grapes in. I wanted it sweet and tangy with some spices to bump up the flavor. And before I go on too much and start sounding like one of those poetic foodie types I will spill the beans and say I decided to go with the spices I use to make chai. (I won't say "chai tea" because "chai" means tea, so it's a bit redundant to do so. However, us Americans think of a specific flavor combination when we think of chai so I wanted to be clear about what I meant.)

These take no time to put together, and they are ready to start munching on 24 hours later, so if you like chai and you like grapes there is really no reason not to give a small batch of these a try. They will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

I like to snack on mine straight out of the jar, but I could see other ways to use them as well. Try chopping some up and eating them over yogurt for breakfast. You could even sprinkle a little cinnamon granola on the yogurt as well. Or serve them as part of a cheese plate. Maybe make a flat-bread with some gruyere or some goat cheese and some caramelized onions. Drop a couple into the bottom of a glass of champagne.  OK, now I'm just making myself hungry so I'll skip to the recipe.

Printable version

Chai-Spiced Pickled Grapes

Inspired by Art & Lemons recipe for Chai Tea
(Makes one pint)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 a pound of black grapes; rinsed
• 1/2 a cup of white wine vinegar
• 1/2 a cup of sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 green cardamom pods; crushed
• 1 star anise
• 8 whole cloves
• 1-inch piece of ginger; peeled and cut in half
• 1/4 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns

Directions:

1. Cut the stem end off of the grapes and put them in a clean pint jar. Set jar aside.
2. To make the brine, in a small sauce pan over medium heat combine the vinegar, sugar, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, star anise, cloves, ginger, and peppercorns. Stir until the sugar is completely melted. Then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 2-3 minutes until you start to smell the chai spices. 
3. Pour the brine over the grapes. Put a lid on the pint jar and stick it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.