Piccalilli
One of the things that I remember from my childhood is the piccalilli that my Grandmother always had in the house. Recently some of my friends have been asking me if I had a piccalilli recipe, or if I had ever made it. The answer to both these questions, until now, was NO.
Even though I have not grown any cauliflower this year (I have a row labelled as cauliflower but due to a packaging issue at Sutton’s Seeds it is actually a second row of purple sprouting broccoli!) I decided to make some piccalilli using a recipe I found in an old recipe book. My only concern is that the vegetables tasted a little too salty before I mixed them with the sauce – I hope that this is normal and the salt will be overpowered by the mustard/vinegar/turmeric…
Ingredients
- 1 kg mixed vegetables
- 60 g cooking salt
- 700 ml vinegar
- 12 chillies
- 225 g granulated sugar
- 25 g mustard powder
- 15 g turmeric
- 2 tablespoons cornflour
Method
Cut a variety of vegetables such as cauliflower, cucumber, shallots and beans into small pieces. They should weigh about 1kg when prepared. Put in a pyrex bowl and sprinkle with the cooking salt. Leave to stand overnight, then rinse and drain well.
Boil the vinegar and chillies for 2 minutes, leave to stand for 30 minutes, then strain. Mix the sugar, mustard, turmeric and cornflour and blend with a little of the vinegar. Bring the rest of the vinegar back to the boil and pour it over the blended mixture before returning it to the saucepan to boil vigourously for 3 minutes.
Remove the mixture from the heat and mix in with the vegetables. Pack into jars and seal.
Salted mixed vegetables