The Cottage Smallholder

Photo: Piccalilli

For years I was tempted by the cheap jars of yellow piccalilli on the supermarket shelves. I’d take one head clearing taste and the jar would be put smartly at the back of the cupboard to wait until it was swept away in a hearty Spring clean.

Last year we tasted Magic Cochin’s homemade piccalilli. It was everything that I’d imagined piccalilli could be and more. It is so good that they are only allowed a jar a month to salve that certain piccalilli yearning. And I’m ashamed to say I had two helpings from the January jar.

This year I just had to make my own using our own home grown vegetables. In fact I made three batches as it was so good. So we are rationed 3 jars a month until next summer. My inspiration came from Oded Schwartz recipe for Chow Chow which I’ve tweaked to suit our taste. I added much more turmeric as both our brains and bodies could do with a bit of coddling.

You can use almost any crisp vegetable that you like. Choose a selection of colours to make the piccalilli attractive. Try and chop the vegetables into an assortment of shapes and sizes. It takes about a month to mature so make it soon and it will be ready to serve with cold meats and cheese at Christmas.

Christmas piccalilli recipe
Ingredients:
50g of calabrese florets (broccoli)
250g of green tomatoes (or hard red ones) chopped
300g of cucumbers sliced lengthwise and then sliced into half centimetre half moons
250g of French beans topped and tailed and chopped in half (if you are making this in summer – use your own fresh runner beans)
225g of courgettes chopped
1500g of cauliflower florets
320g of carrots chopped
1 head of celery (destring and slice)
2 red Romano peppers (deseed and chop into 3 cm lengths)
300g of small pickling or baby onions or shallots (skinned and cut in half if they are chunky
100g of salt

Spicy pickling mixture:
375g of light soft brown sugar
1.5 litres of cider vinegar
80g of mustard powder
1 tsp of celery salt
2 teaspoons of mustard seeds
3 tablespoons of turmeric powder
120g of plain flour

Method:

Wash and prepare all the vegetables. Put them in a large bowl.  Sprinkle on the salt cover the vegetables with cold water and mix everything well to dissolve the salt. Weigh down the vegetables using a plate and leave to stand over night.

The next day drain the vegetables and rinse quickly.  Then blanch them for two minutes in boiling water in batches I  – used a sieve for this stage. Plunging them immediately into cold water after blanching so they stayed crisp. Leave them to drain while you make the pickling mixture.

Mix the mustard powder, turmeric, celery salt and flour together and gradually add some vinegar (about 300ml) to make a thin paste.

Put the rest of the vinegar into a non reactive saucepan and add the sugar. Bring slowly to the boil stirring to dissolve the sugar. When this is done add the paste a little at a time to the vinegar and sugar. You should end up with a thickened spicy sauce – if it’s bobbly blend with a stick blender.

When you are happy with your sauce, put in the vegetables and the mustard seeds and return to the boil and immediately take the saucepan off the heat.

Bottle in hot sterilised jars with plastic lined metal lids. Don’t use cellophane as the vinegar will absorb through these.

Leave for a month to mature in a dry, dark place.