Saturday 17 November 2012

The Picklin' Pixie at work

Some of you will have gathered I had a sudden burst of 'Domestic Goddessitis' a couple of weeks ago - and had a go at making pickles after a lapse of over 20 years at least. The first thing I made was piccalilli, so run away now if you don't like it - although you could be nice and stay just to see how OCD I am about the packaging of things.

Len hopes it isn't a case of 'presentation is all' - in fact he snaffled a taste of a little bit left over after I'd finished sealing the jars and even then, unmatured, it got the big thumbs up :) Ha, yesterday I caught him hovering in the cool garage by the shelves the pickle jars are stored on - asking plaintively if they're nearly ready to eat!! Sigh, I'm gonna have to keep counting them.
Sweet, Crunchy Piccalilli

The recipe says: this tastes a hundred times better than anything you could buy in the shops. Amazingly it tastes pretty good as soon as it's cooled, but ideally it should be left for at least a month to allow the flavours to develop. We've opened jars after 6 months and they are even better! Ginger makes this quite fiery, you might want to adjust the quantity to suit your own taste (I did reduce the amount!). Vegetables can be varied according to personal preference; red peppers and sweetcorn are suggestions.

Ingredients

Makes: 8 (12 oz) jars - I got 7 x 1lb jars out of the quantity

1 large cauliflower, broken into 1cm florets
3 medium onions, 1cm dice
3 large carrots, quartered lengthways then .5cm slices
1 cucumber, peeled and de-seeded, 1 cm dice
200g fine beans, sliced
100g salt
75g plain flour
13g mild curry powder
13g turmeric
40g mustard powder
26g ground ginger - I used 16g which was plenty I'm sure!
565g sugar
1 litre white (distilled) malt vinegar 
Prep: 1 hour | Cook: 30 mins | Extra time: 1 day, marinating

13 comments:

  1. Wow this looks so professional, love the jars and they would make a fabulous gift too. Piccalilli reminds me of boxing day, my uncles all gathered at my mums, cold meats and pickles was the order of the day and they used to go through a whole jar in one sitting . Happy days, wonderful memories and I can even smell the piccalilli too. Hugs, Amanda x

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  2. Wow this is stunning. The jar is great.
    Buon apetit!
    Tamara

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  3. This looks great, I made 24 jars of tomato chutney last month which went down a storm
    Tilly

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  4. I have always detested shop bought piccalili, but yours sounds rather delish! There is no ingredient in there that I don't like, maybe I'll have a try. Thanks for the recipe :)
    xxx

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  5. Oh so beautifully finished! My Mum used to make piccalli and the aroma lingered for days! Yum! -Will be perfect with cold meats for xmas time. x Jo

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  6. Wishing you many punchy munchings in a month or so if you can keep Len away from them!

    Hugs
    Sarn xxx

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  7. How many jars did the quantity make? DH and I make grapefruit marmalade every year. We but the grapefruit from the store as they are plentiful for the next few months.

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  8. It seems Jo has the same memories as me of Mum's piccalli :-) I can smell it from here. It brings back so many wonderful memories.
    Hugs,
    A x

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  9. The EM loves piccalilli - I think he has it on his lunchtime butties almost every day - but I've never been tempted to make it - all that peeling and chopping. Can't wait to hear your resident mouse's verdict :)
    Hugs, Elizabeth xx

    PS: Alan's hip is really crippling him at the moment - he's on new medication and is awaiting the result of the x-rays he had on Wednesday. I'll keep you posted.

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  10. This sounds delicious...I think I will have to let Mr Picky read the recipe and perhaps i will be giving this a go too!

    Love, Love, Love the OCD jars!!!

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  11. Mmm, I will try this, hopefully get the time to do it before Christmas as I did my onions this year but not the spicy tomatoe chutney as still had lots left from last years batch, went a bit ott with it, so this will be something different.

    Kath x

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  12. We only ever used to get picalilli in the Christmas hamper and I wasn't too keen on it then as I knew that during January it would be in my sarnies until it was all gone. Maybe like most things homemade tastes best!
    Trade you for my rose hip jelly which is currently in the jelly bag??
    xx

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  13. Iam just catching up with my blog reading Di - and I just have to say that this looks soooo good - I just wanted to get my hands on a French stick and some stinky cheese to go with this Pickled Lily (sorry - it has always been this in our house!!!) I could sit with a spoon and the jar - cooo I am dribbling at the thought - ROFL!!!

    Hugs to you Sue Pxxx

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