Chutney and Pickles etc.

[DB]

As I contemplate the slices from the gammon I just boiled and roasted (broiled), bought specifically to replace the pre-cut and now stupidly expensive stuff from the supermarket, I look at the Branston Pickle I have added and it brought me to consider what others use.

(A small piece of gammon worth about 10-12 decently thick slices costs about £4.50, takes an hour or less to cook for about another 40p-£1 electricity cost, versus upwards of £3 for 2-3 slices of overly wet ham, not sliced to my satisfaction .)

To be clear, "pickle" in this case doesn't mean small cucumbers stored in vinegar and spices, it means stuff like this:

https://www.greedygourmet.com/this-vs-that/chutney-vs-pickle/

Now, salsa is a different thing again and I'm sure that we've discussed this a bit before, but I'm interested in pickles and chutney.

My go-to for "English" sandwiches is either Branston (a brand of dark pickle) or piccalilli (a mustard pickle made with cauliflower and other stuff, with English mustard).

Chutneys, I tend to go with whatever the local artisan jam and sundries stuff is selling at the local market. Traditionally those are Indian oriented, with Mango chutney being perennial,  but some of their other varieties are also entertaining - the next to try is apple, ginger and whisky chutney.

[Harold Jones]

Easy to make and tasty as a condiment, an ingredient or a side dish.

https://www.daringgourmet.com/homemade-giardiniera/

[Angrybk]

 

[Harold Jones]

I made a batch of sauerkraut this weekend.  I filled a 5 liter crock for myself and a 3 liter for the neighbors.  I make it pretty basic, just salt and cabbage. It should be ready to eat in about 5 weeks.  Last year I let it go 12 then froze what I hadn't used up till then.  The nice thing is that it freezes really well so I don't have to mess with canning it. I mostly use it in stew or stuffed cabbage, but in the summer I eat it as a salad or when I make Ruebens. 

[DB]

My test of growing some stuff myself has proved to be only a proof of concept - I need more protection for my stuff than hope and prayers, so next year the tomatoes and gherkins (pickles) go into some mini greenhouses I have bought but didn't assemble this year.

There was one gherkin, of modest size. I sliced it and pickled it in Sarson's pickling vinegar (which was strong enough) and included some black peppercorns and a piece of dill. maybe about 150grams of pickle total, so a very small jar was needed.

It worked fine on burgers - stayed crunchy and picked up the flavour well enough, but clearly I need more of them for it to be worthwhile.

As an aside, I think the total cost to date of the tomatoes, chilli peppers and pickles means that they're running at about £1 each, including the grow bags, seeds and compost costs. There are a few more tomatoes to come, the best about palm sized, and there are about a dozen peppers waiting to be picked.

All in all, I don't think I've done badly given the lack of attention (going to the Netherlands I&I just as the weather dried up didn't help yields any, although my neighbour watered the outside plants a couple of times without my asking, which was nice.)

[Harold Jones]

We will be having our first hard freeze in a couple days so I'm going to make a double batch of this with the green tomatoes I'll be harvesting. I'm going to include the last of the tomatillos in it as well.

https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/recipes/green-tomato-chutney/

 

Ingredients
1.5 pounds green tomatoes chopped
2-3 green chilies of choice chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
½ cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon yellow curry powder
1 tablespoon cayenne
1 tablespoon ginger powder or use fresh chopped ginger
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Heat a pot to medium heat and add all of the ingredients.
Simmer, stirring often, until the mixture breaks down and becomes thick and sauce, about 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
 

[DB]

What do you use for mustard powder?

"Yellow curry powder" sounds like turmeric, cumin and coriander. It is likely to have cayenne ginger, black pepper and mustard seeds as well, so it sort of doubles up some of the spice ingredients.

edit: Dunno why I put in ginger.

Edited October 26, 2023 by DB

[Harold Jones]

I used Colman's of Norwich Mustard Powder.  I use it in a lot of things so I have a pretty good sized tin of it on hand.  I wasn't sure what yellow curry powder meant so I bought a small bottle of Tone's curry powder, ingredients are listed as turmeric, red pepper and spice extract.  If I do it again I'll up the green chilis, reduce the cayenne and use garam masala instead of US standard curry powder.  Will probably double the Ginger too and chop things more.