Christmas piccalilli recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas, Jam Jelly and Preserves | 51 comments
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.
Leave a reply
Hiya! Is this a hot piccalilli as in ‘spicy’ hot. If so, would it help tp leave out the mustard seeds? Also…1500g of cauliflower! That seems like a lot? Thankyou.
This piccalilli is not hot just piquant. The amount of cauliflower is correct 🙂 Keep in the mustard seeds they add to the texture.
I think I finally found the piccalilli recipe I’d like to try! there are several on the internet, but I got the feeling this is a good one! 🙂
I live in Austria, Vienna, and I hope I’ll find everything I need.
Is that a special mustard powder you use?
Looking forward to trying it these days! Or even tomorrow?! 🙂
Candice
new to pickling…do I put lids on whilst pickle is hot or when it’s gone cool? Recipe looks good 🙂
Hi Marilyn
Always pot this up hot to create a good seal. Thanks for the nudge – I must get some piccalili made soon!
I am very keen to try this out – is this a tart piccallili? I find the ones sold in NZ are very sweet and I am longing for the “real” thing … well how I remember it anyway 🙂
Please send me Magic Cochin’s piccalilli recipe. Also can you make these recipes with out using any thickener and very little sugar?
looking for Magic Cochin Piccalilli recipe please.
Can I make piccalli without using flour or thickener of any kind and with half the suagar?
I’ll have to make some more too – I’ve given most of it away; note to self, must put it into smaller jars next time. Re the twitter stuff; just flailing away blindly not knowing quite what I’m doing, trying to promote the blog…
Just wanted to say a belated thank you: this was the recipe that brought me to Cottage Smallholder after a quick google. I made it early december, and have managed to resist opening it until now so that it could mature and mellow. Lovely stuff!
Hello GG
I love this too. Just finished the last jar from last year so will have to make some asap! Need more onions in the next batch as they are the best. You are doing good stuff on twitter 😉
I’ve been doing a lot of pickling and preserving recently, but didn’t have a good piccalilli recipe, so thank you. There was a little bit left over once I’d filled all the jars, so I couldn’t resist trying it once it had cooled. Very good indeed, even in its fresh state – tangy, spicy and crunchy. Looking forward to trying the rest once it’s had a month or so to mature
I made this this morning. As hinted at in the recipe, I had a few lumps of the mustard and flour mixture, so I used an electric hand whisk to blend them up. Then I had to open all the windows to breath again – wow that’s some spicy chutney! Can’t wait to try it now, will have to force myself to wait a month 🙂