Red Devil Pickles

Once upon a time I tried Rick Bayless' recipe for chicken tinga tacos. The pickled morita chiles turned out to be one of my favorite aspects of that dish — so much so that I couldn't bear to discard the unused liquid. Instead, I used it to pickle some cucumbers. And thus were born red devil pickles: a sweet, salty brine with tones of chile flavor and heat with a hint of smoke.

• 1/2 c cider vinegar
• 3 c water
• 50 g pickling salt
• 80 g turbinado sugar
• 1/2 tsp coriander seed
• 1/2 tsp mustard seed
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 guajillo chile, seeded and torn into large pieces
• 1 pasilla chile, broken into large pieces
• 2 morita chiles, whole