Homemade Piccalilli

Now I always had for to many vegetables for my allotment when I had it at the end of the season. Now this is the sort of thing that you can make and store so none of them go to waste. And even if you do not have an allotment or any kind of garden it is nice to make, put in nice jars and give away at Christmas if you like

You will need

250g/9oz green beans

500g/1lb 2oz cauliflower florets

250g/9oz courgettes

100g/3½oz salt

3 onions

300ml/10½floz malt vinegar

300ml/10½floz white wine vinegar

2tbsp English mustard powder

2tbsp ground turmeric

1tsp ground ginger

1tsp dried chilli flakes

25g/1oz corn flour

250g/9oz granulated sugar

First you want to draw the water from your vegetables so first prepare them. Trim and cut your vegetables in to similar sized pieces, beans cut into 1.5cm/⅝in pieces, cauliflower florets cut into quarters and courgettes cut lengthways into 1cm/½in slices. Put your vegetables in a non-metallic mixing bowl, sprinkling with the salt and mix them together. Then cover them in the bowl with a plate and leave to stand for 24 hours. Now if you have a non-metallic sieve let them stand in that so any water that comes out drains away. After standing take the vegetables and rinses them in cold water about 6 or 7 times to get rid of the salt. Then drain them off .

Now your veg is ready then you have to make the pickle. Dice your onions and put them in a large pan with the malt vinegar and the sugar. Bring this to a gentle simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. Now take some of the white wine vinegar and mix with the mustard powder, turmeric, ginger, chilli flakes and corn flour to form a paste. Any white wine vinegar left add to the pan.

Make sure that you have no water left on the vegetables and tip them into the pan. On a low heat cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the spice paste  and mix well in to the vegetables. All depending on how big your vegetables are it will take anything from 5 to 10 minutes to cook, just stir it regularly and when the vegetables are tender but crisp and the sauce has thickened it is ready. Once it has cooked take it off the heat.

Now you will need to sterilise the jars, wash them and put them in an oven set at 140c/275f to dry for 30 minutes. Once your jars are ready put the pickle into them. Make sure that you get an even distributed of components throughout the jars. Let them cool then cover  plastic coated metal lids and seal them tight .

 Label them up and date them then store in a cool, dark place for at least a month before eating.