Preserves on Parade

Preserved pears today 

Spicy pear and dried apricot chutney with ginger, chilli and lime.  Pickled pears in a sugar and vinegar mix with garlic, chilli, peppercorns and dried rosemary.  OH arrived home, said the house smelt lovely and went looking for goodies.  He wasn’t best pleased when I said they had to mature, the chutney needed 2 months and the pickles were being saved for the end of the year for eating with cold meats and cheese so hands off   

Elder daughter has started a very simple preserve system, with the simple slicing of a couple of red onions plonked in a jar of cider vinegar for a day or so!

They really do taste fabulous, and will have lost the sharpness of a raw onion but don't last long as they get too soft! So, for a week or so, there's a great additive to a sandwich or a salad for very little outlay!

Got my preserving year off to a start.

Eggs that were a freebie from work (reduced but not sold) with some white malt vinegar, dried chillies and peppercorns.  OH likes his pickled eggs to have a kick. Now got to hide them somewhere he won’t find them for a few weeks until they mature 

The small jar has a bit of scrunched up cling film on the top as it isn’t full and I needed to keep the eggs submerged.

Green garlic from the plot made into garlic butter.  It was overwintered stuff that got bad rust and did not split into cloves.  I chopped it up and blended it with oil and parsley. Then added butter, made into rolls and once set in the fridge, I cut it into rounds and froze it. This is it just about to go back in the freezer. It smells wonderful 

Cucumber and coriander freezer pickles getting ready to be frozen.

I was dubious about these when I first tried them a few years ago, but trusted the recipe reviews.  They are ready good and I’m glad to have the surplus to be able to make them this year 

I used them fresh snowdrops 

I used them fresh snowdrops 

Thanks NS

I've found that the best mix so far, is to make a large bowlful of about thirty hot chillis, three capsicum, about a dozen garlic corms, blitz them and get them going for a few days to ferment in some brown sugar.

Then reduce about three pounds of blitzed tomatoes to a paste, and, after sieving the peppers, add that to another large frying pan with half a cup of white wine vinegar, and reduce the whole lot to ketchup consistency...

Makes about a litre eventually!

Recently tried three variations on the above...

1) Green toms - bit of blight started, so I picked everything, chucked the duds and used the rest with chillies, garlic, ginger and lime.

2) Apple, chillies, carrot, ginger and lemon.

3) Pineapple, chillies and pear.

The last one blows your head off...!