Pickling is an age-old way of storing seasonally available ingredients; it’s also a way of lengthening the time you can keep any fresh ingredient successfully. Pickled chiles are a staple in many places beyond the Great Wall, as well as in parts of central China. They are, we’ve discovered, very handy and easy to have on hand. Over time, the heat of the chiles becomes a little muted, and the balance of flavors shifts toward slightly sweet, but the chiles keep their bright color and some texture too. We now rely on them as a staple. You can use them in place of fresh chiles when stir-frying (for example, in Pork with Napa Cabbage and Chiles) or put them out as a table condiment (especially when serving Hui-style lamb dishes, or any grilled meat).

You can buy jars of bright red “made-in-Thailand” pickled chiles in many Asian groceries, but they are sweeter and hotter than the pickled chiles we’ve come across in the outlying mountain and desert areas of China, from Yunnan and Guizhou to Qinghai and Xinjiang. And it’s very easy to make your own. These Yunnanese-style pickled chiles are less hot than the Thai version and have no added sweetness. They’re spiked with a little Sichuan pepper. Make up a batch when you come across very red ripe cayenne chiles. You can increase the yield by scaling the recipe up in proportion.