Pickling time!

its that time again, the whole house smells but its worth it when you open that jar in a few months time. Or a week if you cannot wait that long.

one i did this week was the nigel slater recipe in the guardian a few weeks ago, with the remaining tomatoes in the greenhouse. It made only a couple of jars but looks promising.

Last night it was the beetroot relish which is firm favorite in this household.

900g raw beetroot grated
450g onions
675g cooking apples
450g raisins
1 litre white wine vinegar
900g granulated sugar
2 tbsp ginger

basically throw it all in a large pan and bring to boil and simmer then for a few hours. I use the grater on my processor with the onion, beetroot and apple so they are all the same size/texture which seems to work really well with the finished product.
I am going to do another 2 batches over the next week or so, if i have enough jars!!

A couple of weeks ago i also made 'red pepper, tomato, chilli and courgette chutney'
I did two versions, one which had a heavier spices element, a curryish flavour, and one without. Both are very good if i do say so though.

The 'without' version was

5 red peppers, chopped
1.4kg tomatoes chopped
8000g onions
1.6 kg courgettes, diced and salted to remove water, then rinsed
5 large garlic clovers
7 red chillies, hot, leave seeds in if you wish.
60g ginger finely chopped
225g light brown sugar
500mls white wine vinegar.

simmer for a few hours and bottle, will make a good few jars.