Make Your Own Easy Peasy Piccalilli

Yes, as you can tell I have gone a little preserve crazy.  But hey if there is spare food around we should do something with it.  Here’s how to make piccalilli.  As ever there are no fancy skills or equipment required and the end result is vibrant and tasty so go on have a go yourself!  As with most pickles and chutneys this one adores strong cheese but personally I think its fab with jacket potatoes and cottage cheese.

Easy Peasy Piccalilli Recipe

A traditional pickle from the days of the British rule in India this is exotic looking but will use up some of your more mundane surplus veggies.  Cauliflower, green beans and baby onions are the staple ingredients but you can add what you like really.

Piccalilli Ingredients

• 600g cauliflower florets
• 450g baby onions
• 900g mixed veg (or fruit and veg)
• 225g salt
• 2.4 litres water
• 100g sugar
• 2 garlic cloves – crushed
• 2tsp mustard powder
• 1 litre white vinegar (distilled malt, spiced pickling or wine)
• 2 tsp mustard powder
• 25g plain flour
• 1 tbsp turmeric

Method

Draining Salted Veg

Prepare your fruit and vegetables.  Pearl or pickling onions are traditional but I’ve used ordinary white onion cut into large dice.  Carrots and zucchini etc should be thick sliced, cabbage shredded, melon cut into bite size chunks. and beans in 2cm lengths.  Just try and keep everything of similar size really.  Layer the veg (& fruit) in a large non-corrosive bowl sprinkling with the salt as you go.  Pour over the water, cover and leave to soak for 24 hours.

The next day drain the vegetables and rinse off the brine in several changes of water to get that salty taste gone!  Now drain those veggies.

Turmeric Paste

Gently heat the sugar, garlic, mustard and 900ml of the vinegar in a large pan stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Add the veg to the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 – 15 mins till almost tender.

Mix up the flour, turmeric and remaining vinegar to get an insane yellow paste and stir into the pan.  Bring everything back to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes until thickened.

Decant to warmed sterilised jars, seal and store somewhere dark and cool.

Leave for two weeks to mature and use within 1 year.

Variations

Cauliflower, pickling onions, beans and marrow are traditional.  But use what you have.  Just make sure all the veggies (or fruit) are in tip-top condition and of bite-size proportions.  Green tomatoes, zuchinni, peas, grapes, melon, peppers, cucumber or anything else you fancy can work.  I’ve used pink and green cauliflower, green beans, onions, carrot and cabbage as that’s what I’ve got spare at the moment.

This one is worth making just to have something so insanely coloured in your store cupboard and with no artificial colourings either.  Be warned though the turmeric can and will stain clothing, plastics, skin, well lots of things – you have been warned!

For a more self sufficient future