Day two!

I am writing this a day late as time got away from me yesterday. So the next preserve was Picalilli. Having done all the cutting on the first day of preserving, the vegetables were salted and left for 24 hours. The mixed veg was then rinsed of the salt and patter dry with kitchen paper. I then blended 60gms of cornflour with 20gms of turmeric, 10gms of ground coriander, 2tsp of mustard seeds and 2tsp of whole cumin seeds. This dry mix I turned into a paste with a splash of pickling vinegar.
I then warmed about 1.2 litres of picking vinegar with 300gms of sugar. When all the sugar was dissolved a little more of this liquid was added to the yellow paste and then all the paste was added to the vinegar. All the veg was mixed into this and folded in to coat everything.
Two last additions of a very finely chopped red chilli and 100gms of honey and the Picalilli was popped into sterilised jars. Ready for labelling.

Getting the last jar out

Jars ready for the cupboard - cold cuts at Christmas

Day one!

Really busy day of vegetable cutting. It began with the preparation of the vegetables for the Picalilli. This pickle is a throwback to the Raj and in that way has a particularly interesting set of ingredients and flavours. I reckon that five or six different vegetables are required to give the level of interest required. This morning I chopped 400gms of runner beans (from a neighbour whilst they are on holiday) 400gms of courgettes, turning to marrows (another gift from a neighbor) 400gms of cauliflower, 400gms of onions, 200gms of butternut squash (found in a car park!) and 200gms of tomatoes from the massive box I purchased in Thame market yesterday for just £4. I then set about cutting everything up and mixing them. To this I added salt and it is, at present, sitting in a cold corner to lose a little liquid and keep everything crisp.

Raw Picalilli

Next I started work on a Tomato and Courgette chutney. With all these preserves there are a plethora of recipes on line. I have taken a 'pick and mix' approach to this recipe. I chopped 400gms of courhete and the same amount of tomatoes. I also chopped 6 small onions and 5 small apples.

To this I added 150gms of raisons and 150gms of dried currants. I disolved 400gms of dark soft sugar Iin 500ml of white wine vinegar. To this I added a stick of cinnamon stick and a finely chopped finger of root ginger. I also threw in a tablespoon of mixed spice. When all was disolved I added the vegetables and brought the whole lot to the boil. This was then simmered for nearly three hours. It wasthen bottled Iin the normal way.

Raw Chtney

Chutney at the start of the cooking process

And so I'm back......

When I started to write this blog I gave myself a few rules. I was going to make every effort to be positive, there was to be a thick vein of ethics throughout the food I blogged about, and I was only going to write when I felt that I had something to say.
This academic year was a bit manic and so, finding the time to blog has been tricky and I have a 'wodge' of sheets of paper with ideas, concepts, mind maps about food and foodie issues. I am aware that I have said this before but I really must find time to write. The things I have yet to write about include food education, rhubarb gin, preservation methods, smoking ones own salmon and preserving for gluts. So I am not short of inspiration!
As I type a large part of Corner Cottage is full of vegetables mainly given to me by other residents of the village. There are courgettes that have turned to marrows, cauliflowers, and runner beans so there is to be a two day frenzy of chutney and piccalilli!
I'll post more tomorrow! (I promise).
This will be a kind of trial run. In the new year I plan to tell the story of a year in preserving writing two blogs a month seasonally examining how we can preserve good things when they are plentiful.