Home-made piccalilli

This month, I’ve been making a lot of my usual preserves – raspberry jelly, elderflower cordial and the like. One I’ve not made before is piccalilli.

Growing up, a jar of piccalilli was always prominent on the Christmas dinner table. It used to be a staple accompaniment to the roast ham – and the cold meat sandwiches, cheese and pies in the following days.

I found numerous recipes in my collection of cook books; all much the same, with slight variations on the ratios of spices. I’ve made the recipe my own by adding mustard seeds and a couple of chillies for bite and colour.

The preparation takes place over two days – the veg needs to be soaked in salted water (the brine) for 24 hours.

Once that’s done, cooking is a quick 20-minute affair before decanting into jars.

The piccalilli is best left for at least 3 months before using to allow the flavours to develop. That leaves plenty of time before Christmas!

Save my recipe to Pinterest here.

Home-made piccalilli

2017-07-27 08:37:20

Ingredients

1.4kg/3lbs vegetables (I used 800g cauliflower, 300g courgettes, 160g onions, 125g fine beans, 15g red chillies)
2l/3½pts water
200g/7oz salt
1l/1¾pt distilled white vinegar or malt vinegar for pickling
140g/5oz Demerara sugar
1tbsp mustard seeds
1tbsp mustard powder
2tsp turmeric
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp mixed spice
1tbsp plain flour

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

Dissolve the salt into the water
Into a large mixing bowl, cut all the vegetables into even sized pieces
Pour the salted water (brine) over the vegetables making sure they're all submerged. Weigh them down with a plate and cover the bowl over with a tea towel. Leave to stand for 24 hours
Drain and put the vegetables into a large pan with the vinegar, sugar and spices. Simmer for 10-20 minutes depending on how soft or crunchy you like your veg
Using a slotted spoon or ladle, decant the vegetables into hot, sterilised jars (I needed 5 mayonnaise-sized jars)
Mix the flour into the spiced vinegar and boil for 1 minute before pouring into the jars of vegetables
Seal the lids tightly on to the jars
Store in a cool, dry cupboard for at least 3 months before using

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Price Points: Preserve starter kits

Kitchen Craft preserving starter set, 4 pieces: £10, hobbycraft
VonShef 9L Maslin pan jam preserving starter set bundle: £32.99, Amazon
5-Pieces preserve starter set by Kilner: £69.99, Wayfair

One of the things I love about the start of autumn is making jams, jellies, pickles, chutneys and all manner of other preserves. I made a batch of apple and chilli jelly this week… the first of the season.

Late summer is spent foraging for fruit such as wild raspberries, elderberries and blackberries. They’re added to the redcurrants that were harvested from our allotment in and are made into mixed fruit jelly.

You really should try it – it’s really easy, satisfying and far superior to most shop bought stuff. Get yourself one of these preserve starter kits and you’ll be quickly on your way to making your own.

Each has its own merits however, I’ve chosen #2 as the best of the preserve starter kits for a number of reasons. The most important component is the jam/maslin pan. It needs to be large, sturdy and made of the right material. It needs to be made of a non-reactive material such as stainless steel. Reactive metals such as aluminium and untreated cast iron can give a metallic taste to the food and can also cause discolouration. The pan also needs to be a good conductor of heat, for example, copper so that it achieves the high temperatures necessary in jam-making.

The next most important component is the thermometer. It’s not absolutely essential but, if you’re not entirely confident with using the cold saucer method, a thermometer is the foolproof way of knowing that the magic 105ºC/220ºF temperature has been reached.

A jam funnel is very useful if you’ve got shaky hands like mine, however buying the other components are less necessary. I have a huge store of different sized & shaped jars – I never put the finished jars of honey, mayonnaise, pesto etc into the recycling. With a little pre-planning, you shouldn’t need to buy jars specially for preserving. Just make sure ones you’re reusing have no chips or cracks and have their original airtight lids.

Having said all that – yes, both #2 and #3 come with jars as part of their kits. The former has the edge over the latter as the single 1-litre jar is much less practical than 6 smaller ones. If you store a litre of jam, jelly, chutney etc in a single jar you’ll have to eat all the contents within a couple of weeks of opening or it will go off. Also, you should store your preserves in the fridge once they’ve been opened. I usually have too much other stuff in the fridge to accommodate a litre-sized pot of jam.

In the years I’ve been preserving, I’ve never used a jar lifter (I use a pair of kitchen tongs), a jar wrench (just twist a dinner knife between the space between the lid and the jar) or a magnetic stick (again, I use kitchen tongs). So that’s 3 of the 4 Kitchen Craft items that would be neglected at the back of the cupboard. You could buy each preserve making component you think you’ll need singly – but it’s often cheaper to buy them as a bundle.

Apple and chilli jelly

We spent about an hour this week picking apples in Justin’s parents‘ next-door neighbours’ garden. Got all that?

We must have harvested about 10 to 15 kilos. I wanted to make something where I didn’t need to peel and core that quantity apples. Though they’re delicious (they’re cooking apples), a lot of them are small and misshapen – a nightmare job!

Justin suggested apple and chilli jelly. It would utilise the apples – and some of the 300 glass jars I’ve managed to accumulate over the years!

I weighed out 4 kilos of apples – so doubled up this recipe. I barely made a dent in the pile!

It’s not a complicated process, but a bit of time is required for chopping, boiling, straining, re-boiling. No problem if you’re in the house, as you can get on with something else as it bubbles away.

The resulting jelly is a wonderful colour – and tastes amazing! The perfect accompaniment for vegetarian or meat dishes, which is ideal for this household. Perfect with cheese, burgers and kebabs. Justin thinks it will be absolutely awesome with slow roasted pork and has vowed to try it at the weekend.

If you have an apple harvest ready to pick, then we can thoroughly recommend this recipe. It will last for months (even years) in your store cupboard – or make perfect presents for anyone deserving enough!

Now… what to do with the other 10 kilos of apples?!

Apple and chilli jelly

Print recipe Pin recipe

Course Condiment

Ingredients

2 kg cooking apples washed and roughly chopped (no need to peel or core)
1.5 litres water
1 unwaxed lemon zest and juice
granulated and/or preserving sugar - 1.25kg to every litre of strained liquid
3 hot chillies sliced thinly (or more if you'd like it hotter. Red ones look prettier suspended in the finished jelly)

Instructions

Put the chopped apples into a large saucepan with the 2 of the chillies and the lemon zest
Add the water and bring to the boil. Simmer gently until all the fruit is soft and mushy - about half an hour
Ladle the mixture into a jelly strainer set over a large heat-proof bowl or saucepan (you could also use a square of muslin or old, clean tea towel set into a colander over the bowl/saucepan)
Allow to drain through overnight or at least 6 hours. Don't force the juice through or the finished jelly will be cloudy
Measure the juice and add 1.25kg of sugar to every litre of liquid
Add the lemon juice and remainder of the sliced chillies
Gently heat the liquid and sugar, stirring occasionally to make sure that all the sugar has dissolved before bringing it slowly to the boil. Continue to boil for 5-10 minutes before testing for a set. Depending on how much jelly you're making this could take up to half and hour
When the jelly has reached setting point, (see this post about testing to see if it's ready) carefully pour it into warm sterilised jars using a funnel and ladle. Make sure that there's a bit of chopped chilli in each jar
Cover immediately with screw top lids

Keyword apple, chilli, jelly

Redcurrant jelly

July sees the start of our food harvesting and preserving season. Last week we made a delicious elderflower ice cream with our home-made elderflower cordial.

This week, we’ve made some redcurrant jelly using a recipe from Cordon Bleu Preserving.

We inherited half a dozen or so redcurrant bushes when we took on our allotment last year. On our last trip down there this week, the bushes were heaving with little red jewels.

It took the pair of us about two hours to pick about half of them. When we got home, we gave them a rinse – they barely filled our small colander!

Despite this, we kept back a couple of cupfuls (to go into a pie) before making rest into jelly… it actually made 8 jars.

We know that redcurrant jelly is usually matched with lamb or game and a dollop or two can go into a gravy for extra flavour. We’ll have to look for some other good flavour matches…any ideas?

Redcurrant jelly

Cordon Bleu Preserving

Print recipe Pin recipe

Course Condiment

Cuisine British

Ingredients

Redcurrants
800 g granulated or preserving sugar to each litre of juice made

Instructions

Gently rinse the redcurrants in a colander before carefully removing the stems and putting the fruit into Kilner jars
Firmly cover the jars with lids before putting them in to an oven at 300ºF/Gas mark 2 until the juice has run well
Remove from the oven carefully remove the lids and turn out the fruit into a jelly bag or muslin overnight
Measure the juice and take the correct proportion of sugar
Add the sugar to a large heavy-bottomed saucepan or jam pan and warm on a low heat
In a separate pan, heat the juice to boiling point (but don't allow to boil)
Add the juice carefully to the warm sugar stirring all the time until the sugar has dissolved
Pour jelly at once into sterilised jars
Allow to cool before screwing the lids on firmly

Keyword currants, jelly, preserves, redcurrants