I was eyeing the pile of peppers I had brought in from the garden along with the goodly haul of cucumbers and was wondering what to do with them when it dawned on me that a sweet pickle relish with a bit of a kick would be amazing. So – here is what I did.
I gathered the majority of the ingredients together (sugar and spices not pictured). Some of the yellow peppers were in the freezer which is why some of them are slightly darker.
Ingredients:
- Cucumbers – about five pounds worth
- Hungarian Yellow – ten good sized
- “Red Hot” – about 25
- White onion – two good sized
- White cane sugar – 3 cups / .71 liters
- Apple cider vinegar – 2 cups / .47 liters
- Mustard seed – 1 tbsp / 14.17g
- Turmeric – 1/2 tsp / 7g
- Pickling salt (optional – I use a good sized pinch)
Take the onions and remove the outer skin, bottom and top. Quarter and toss into the food processor. Pulse three or four times with a good pause between to let settle. Eye the onion. You do not want a purée, but a fine chop. No big pieces. Pulse about three or four more times and you should be there. Keep an eye between each pulse to make sure you are not turning to mush.
Dump into a large bowl (I prefer to use glass).
Cut open the bell pepper, removing the stem, seeds and pith. Cut into large chunks and repeat the same process as what was done with the onions. Dump into the bowl with the onions.
Clean out the Hungarian yellows, cutting in half and removing the seeds. Again, pulse in the food processor until a finely chopped consistency. Add to the bowl.
The red hots, I just chopped the stem off and threw into the food processor whole. Yup, seeds and all. I wasn’t in the mood to get that fiddly. The pulsing process will actually fling a goodly portion of the seeds up to the top of the processor’s container so they can be scooped out without much hassle. The rest, meh, I just left ‘em. Just like the rest, dump them in the bowl.
Cucumbers – this takes a few times through as only about two or three cukes fit into my food processor at a time. But, it is fairly painless. Just cut them lengthwise into quarters and scoop out the seeds. Cut into pieces that fit well in your food processor and pulse like the rest. Rinse and repeat through the whole set.
Now…saying rinse made me realize…I never said, but – be certain all your produce has been thoroughly scrubbed and that all your utensils, pots, jars, lids and tools have been sanitized for this, eh? Practice food safety. ?
Ok – moving on…once you have all the bits in the bowl, mix them thoroughly and then dump into a sieve.
Strain the liquids. You will want to push and mash and fold (carefully) until you only get a scant drip or two coming from the sieve. Save one cup or 0.24 liters of this liquid as we will be using it to make the brine.
Note: if you do not have one of these tools, you can use any strainer or even a juicing bag. Just be careful not to completely pulp your solids. And, if you have space in your kitchen, I would highly recommend hitting up second hand and antique shops around. These things are all over the place and sell for a pittance.
Ok – now, take that reserved juice from the solids and put it in a non-reactive pot along with the ACV, white sugar, mustard seed, turmeric and salt. You want to bring this to a good, solid boil.
While that is heating, get your sanitized jars set up and ready. You want to loosely pack the jars. I am using 1/2 liter (pint) mold jars because they are just the best for digging out relishes. Leave about 1/4” or 6.4mm space above the packed solids.
Once the brine has reached boiling, you will ladle the brine over the solids until it is just covering the solids. There shouldn’t be a lot of extra liquid.
Once all the jars have been filled with the boiling brine, wipe the rims with vinegar and ensure no solids or other foreign matter is present to potentially cause the seal to fail. Place the clean lids (in my case, lids and seals) on the jars and lock down either with the ring or – in the case of mine – clips.
Place into either a water bath canner or steam canner (I am using a steam canner).
Bring your WB to a roiling boil or your SC to the right temp for your zone. Process for 10 minutes. Let cool in closed canner for about 10 more minutes and then carefully remove to an area where they can continue to cool undisturbed for the next 24 hours.
I made up a huge batch of the brine and had quite a bit left over. I liked it so went ahead and canned it. I can use this for pickles or whatever at some point.
Now, the hard part – waiting ten to fourteen days before eating!!
Happy canning!!