I wasn't planning to can (what I need to do is laundry!) but yesterday at the Nativity Church Tailgate Market in Pleasant Ridge (3:30 - 6:16pm at 5935 Pandora and as far as I know our area's only Monday farmers' market), I saw some beautiful early season cucumbers at Neltner's. Normally I wait to can until later in the season so I can buy the ingredients cheaply, but the cukes were so pretty and fresh looking that I couldn't resist. I bought enough for a recipe of dill relish, which I use often in egg salad and other recipes. This recipe is adapted from the classic Ball Blue Book Dill Pickle Relish recipe, which doesn't include mustard seed or garlic.GARLIC MUSTARD DILL PICKLE RELISH
7 pints
8 pounds cucumbers
1/2 c salt
2 t turmeric
1 qt water
1 pound onions, chopped fine
1/3 c sugar
2 T dill seed
1 T mustard seed
6 cloves garlic, pressed
1 qt white wine vinegar
In batches of ~1 1/2 pounds in the food processor, chop cucumbers until just chopped fine. Don't overprocess. Dump into a bowl, add salt, turmeric, and water, stir, and let sit 2 hours.Meanwhile, set jars, lids, and rims into canning kettle, fill with water to cover pint jars by 2 inches, cover and bring to a simmer. When the 2 hours are up, drain cucumbers, rinse, and drain again. Add to a non-reactive (enamel or stainless) stock pot along with remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, and simmer 10 minutes.
Using tongs to pull jars, lids and rims from the hot water as needed, ladle the relish into hot pint jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Wipe jar rims with damp cloth, cover with hot lids and screw on lid rims without tightening. (The lid rims are only there to hold the lids in place during processing; overtightening can both interfere with processing and cause you to dislodge the lids when removing the lid rims before storing your relish.)
Turn heat to high under canning kettle, set jars into canning rack, drop into water, cover kettle, bring to a boil, and process 15 minutes. Remove from water and set on rack to cool. Once cool, check seals (press gently in the center of the lid -- if you feel a slight pop and the center flexes down and then back up again, the lid didn't form a seal and that jar should be refrigerated and used within a month), remove lid rims, label, and store.
yum! I've made quite a few 'pickles' these past couple months, but nothing with cucumbers (yet)! I've got two varieties growing in the garden, and hopefully I won't have to wait tooooo much longer for them!
ReplyDeleteJen, I've been thinking about pickled chiles. I want to replace the canned chile peppers I use in a gazillion recipes over the winter, but I don't have a pressure canner so I need to pickle them instead of canning them. I'm hoping it won't change the taste so much that they won't be useful for recipes. I could freeze instead, but I'm trying to keep the freezer space for things I can't can.
ReplyDeleteVal, welcome back, can't wait to hear about it, how far did you drive and what was your gas bill!?
ReplyDeleteI want to do pickled vegies like the ones at Lavo.
Vudutu, we were on the train as much as in a car -- flew to Bozeman, rented a car, drove to Yellowstone, Tetons, GC, Zion, Death Valley, Manzanar, Yosemite, then dropped the car off in SF and got on Amtrak to go to Glacier and then home. I don't want to know what our gas bill was! We'd reserved a sedan, but when we landed in Bozeman the only remaining sedan was 'making funny noises' and would we take an SUV. I happen to love to drive SUVs, but every time we filled the tank it was $100. Eeek. I was glad to be finished with that and get on the train.
ReplyDeleteI made egg salad with some of the relish that hadn't gotten canned (because there wasn't enough for another pint) and it was delish!
I can't wait to try your relish. I put Bicks relish in anything that has mayo in it...usually egg salad, salmon salad sandwiches etc. I think I will cut back a bit on the garlic and tumeric...and gradually increase it if needed as I make additional batches. Thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDeleteHeather
So I just checked through my pickling book (The Joy of Pickling), and there are two recipes for pickled chiles -- whole pickled peppers, and also honey-jalepeno rings. She also has multiple recipes for hot sauces, dried chili flakes, and other ideas on how to preserve chiles. I'd be happy to photocopy the recipes and mail them to you if you'd like. Do you typically used roasted chiles or plain?
ReplyDeleteJen, thanks! Let me check with my library ...yep, they've got it! I'll just put it on hold, but thanks so much for the offer!
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm trying to replace are those little 4-oz cans of chopped green chiles, which I think are roasted, peeled, then canned. I'll have to pick up a can and see what's in them.
Thanks for sharing your recipe! We got extra cucumbers last summer that went into compost. It would be great to pickle them your way and chop into egg salad. My mouth is watering.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to combine the train and drive. I am ordering the Joy of Pickling, it keeps popping up as a great book, hope to move early enough to catch you at market!
ReplyDeleteNice! I've been craving relish lately...I dunno why lol. I just need to get a new food processor then I can make these.
ReplyDeleteChef Tom, you can do it without a food processor, but it's a lot of chopping! I started out thinking I'd chop so as to get a more consistently-sized dice), but after the first couple of cukes (and no end in sight) I switched to the food processor. I'm considering making a batch in 1/2"-dice if my good ceramic knives (which I sent to Kyocera for resharpening five weeks ago) ever show up. I thought a large-dice relish might be interesting on hot dogs.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recipe. This is the style of dill relish for which I have been searching.
ReplyDeleteModern cookbooks seem to be lacking recipes for dill relish.
I am making this recipe as I write.
JR, you're welcome! Let me know how it turns out for you. I really like how it's developed so far for me -- I had a half jar extra that I couldn't can, so we've eaten it already in potato and egg salads and on hot dogs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this recipe! My relish is in the canner as I type! I thnk I should have maybe measured the garlic, I used the minced in the jar, and it smells strongly of garlic in my house at the moment. But I think it will be great. I was looking for a recipe that I could make that I didn't need to go to the store for something I didn't have! Karen
ReplyDeleteI have made the original Dill Relish Recipe from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, but I love the idea of this Garlic Mustard version!
ReplyDeleteMy question is, the recipes call for pint jars and to process for 15minutes, so can i use half pint jars (all i have left)? Do i still process for 15 minutes or could I process for 10 minutes or even less?? (which i'd be affraid to do less than 10).
If someone else has tried this, please post your knowledge!
Thanks
bev :)
southerngal, I generally just follow the instructions for processing pints when I use half-pints in a boiling-water bath recipe that calls for pints. I've tried calling the extension service to ask for times on half-pints and their response was that as the recipe doesn't include processing times for half-pints, they aren't able to give advice. You do risk overcooking your pickles, but since these are cooked for only a short time before processing, that shouldn't cause any major changes in quality. Let me know how yours turns out, if you do it!
ReplyDeleteKaren, let us know how yours turns out! I'm really loving mine, though I do think I'm unlikely to go through all of it before cucumber season rolls around again. I'll have to give some away!
ReplyDeleteNice recipe, thanks. The cuke patch is overflowing this year, so I'm trying out a bunch of relish recipes! Thanks again. Matt M.
ReplyDelete