I really like this relish. It is the perfect accompaniment to fish, if fact it goes really well with yesterday's fish cakes! Mmm there are some left over fish cakes in the fridge mmm.
The recipe is my version of a recipe that I found somewhere on the net, with no credits (I don't know who created the original).
Ingredients:
3.72 Kg's (6lbs) Ripe Skinned and roughly chopped tomatoes
5 tsp (4 Oz.) Salt
4 Large ripe red apples
8 Large Red onions (use white one if you can't find red)
1.36 Kg's (3lbs) Brown Sugar
2 Tblsp Colmans Hot English mustard powder
570ml (1 pint) Apple Cider vinegar
5 small Red Chillies
2 Tblsp Cornflour
Method:
Skin the Tomatoes
Peel and Chop the onions
Skin, core and chop the apples.
Cut the chillies in half and de-seed, then finely chop
Reserve about 1/2 a cup of the vinegar
Add all the chopped ingredients, sugar, salt and vinegar (excluding 1/2 cup) to the pot, and put the heat on high.
Mix the mustard powder and the cornflour in with the 1/2 cup of reserved vinegar, when mixed add this to the pot.
Bring the pot to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and cook with the lid closed for about an hour, until the apples are tender.
Notes:
The bottles:
The above recipe makes approximately 3 Liters of relish, therefore you need to prepare enough jars to accommodate the relish once cooked. I find having a young son in the house that the microwave baby bottle steamer works wonders for sterilising your jars. If you use the normal +/- 300ml jar you get about 5 of them in. Once sterilised, put them aside with a clean dish towel covering them, it is best to sterilise just before your mix is ready so that the bottles are still hot when you spoon in the mixture.
The Chopping:
You will see from the photo of the pot, that everything is very roughly chopped in big chunks. I prefer it this way, as I like to see a piece of tomato or apple when I serve it. You can however chop it finer, or blend it afterwards. Just remember if you blend it it will look more like tomato sauce.
The consistency:
The recipe makes quite a "watery" consistency, I personally like it that way, but if you want it more "stodgy" double the cornflour amount, and modify towards the end if necessary. The liquid content of the mixture is also very dependent on the tomatoes, if they are very juicy the mixture will naturally be a bit more "runny". You could also reduce the vinegar amount, but remember to reduce the sugar slightly too as it will become too sweet.
Peeling the Tomatoes:
Firstly ensure your tomatoes are ripe! Make a small "criss-cross" incision on the bottom of the tomato. Just through the skin and not into the flesh of the tomato.
Take out the bit at the top where it was hanging on the bush, by using a sharp pointed knife, and cutting a cone around the piece that must come out. Use the pot that you will make the mixture in as it will need to be big enough to hold all the tomatoes. Fill the pot with enough boiling water to cover all the tomatoes. If needs be boil the water in the pot as one kettle won't be enough. Put the prepared tomatoes in the boiling water (no need to leave the stove on, the water is hot enough), set the timer for 2 minutes, and check to see if the skin peels off easily, if so remove them and peel, if not leave them a bit longer. You should start to see the "criss-cross" incision starting to peel open, once this happens they are ready.
The Chillies!!:
Take precautions when working with chillies, if you have sensitive skin, wear gloves!
As far as the "heat" of this recipe is concerned if you use the 5 Chillies in the recipe it will be about as hot (or not) as Wellington's sweet chilli sauce. I personally want mine to be more "Fiery" and as such I add more chillies. In the "finished product" photo below there are three chillies in front of the bottles. I put in 8 of the small red ones, 1 small orange one (these are quite hot (habanero family)) and 4 of the green chillies. The result is slightly spicier that the aforementioned sweet chilli sauce, but really nice as it is not so sweet.
The Sugar:
I reduced the amount of sugar from 1.36Kg's down to 1.1Kg's in mine as this tends to make it more spicy than sweet. I have however left the recipe as is above, as some people would rather have sweet than too spicy.
Longevity:
These bottles keep for months in the fridge, that is if you don't finish them quicker. They also make the most wonderful gifts. Get creative on the computer, make a nice label and hand them out as gift's at a party. Cheap and original and people will beg you for the recipe!
 |
| The start of the cooking process! |
 |
| The Finished Product |
No comments:
Post a Comment