Recipe 55: Tomato Relish

Definitely one of my favourite relishes so far. I used my home grown chillis and boy, does it give some punch! 

Tomato Relish

makes about 2 litres

2 kg large ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced
750g onions, peeled and sliced
salt
12 small dried red chillis crushed
2 cups malt vinegar
2 1/4 cup Brown sugar
1 tbsp Curry Powder
1 1/2 tsp Mustard
1 tbsp Flour

METHOD

1. Layer the onion and tomato slices in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and leave over night.
2. Next day, drain and place the vegetables in a saucepan and add chillis and  1 1/2 cups of vinegar. Heat to boiling and boil for 5 minutes.
3. Mix the sugar, curry powder, flour and mustard into a bowl, stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of vinegar to make a smooth paste.
4. Stir the paste into the vegetables, cook for an hour, slowly. Stir often (to stop it from sticking to the bottom).
5. Spoon into hot, clean jars and seal 

Recipe 53: Corn Fritters

These fritters definitely have a pikelet type of quality when they are finished cooking. Love them with a bit of vinegar and salt. The husband prefers them with sweet chilli sauce.

Recipe 53: Sweetcorn Fritters

3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper
1 egg
1 can of creamed corn (approximately 440g)
Oil (for frying)

Method 

1. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and papper to taste into a bowl.
2. Add egg, mixing to combine. 
3. Stir in sweetcorn.
4. Heat oil in a frying pan, drop tablespoonsful of corn mixture into pan. When bubbles start forming on the top (much like pikelets), the fritter is ready to turn over.
5. Place cooked fritters on paper towels to drain off excess oil.
6. Serve hot. This recipe generally makes between 10-15 fritters, depending on the size.

Something a little bit flashy

Have realised that you don't need to be slogging away in the kitchen to make something that will impress. This recipe takes less than 10 minutes and I cannot believe how well it goes down with visitors. Only problem is, just like the title states of this post, it is a little bit flashy in terms of $$$. So in truth, this is something I put together when we used to be DINK's (double income, no kids).

Prosciutto sticks with grilled Pear, Honey and Walnut salsa

16 fine slices prosciutto
16 Italian breadsticks (thin sticks)
2 firm pears
1/4 cup walnuts
1 spring onion
1/4 bunch mint
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
2 tbsp honey


METHOD

1. Using a sharp knife halve the prosciutto slices lengthways. Wrap each breadstick with two prosciutto halves.
2. Heat a ribbed griddle (a pan with ridges) over a medium heat, whilst heating, peel the pears, quarter them and remove the stems and seeds. Lay the pear slices on the griddle (or pan if you don't have a griddle) and cook for 2 minutes until lightly caramelised (a nice golden brown colour).
3. Chop the walnuts, finely dice the spring onions and mint. Combine the spring onions, walnuts, mint with the olive oil and red wine vinegar. Do taste this salsa and season with salt and pepper to your liking.
4. Lay four breadsticks on each serving plate and garnish with two pear quarters. Drizzle with honey and garnish with salsa.

Pineapple Relish?

My husband loves antipasto. When we first got together, we were poor students at the time and the likelihood of going out on a 5 star fine dining experience was non-existent. Instead we would hire a video/DVD and spend the night watching that whilst eating antipasto or what we deemed it "munchie food".

As a Christmas present, my mother gave him a recipe book - "Digby Law's Pickle and chutney cookbook - a New Zealand Classic" on how to preserve and make your own chutneys and relishes. Fatal mistake really, as this book has not left the kitchen since christmas day and now all we are eating is chutneys, relishes and sauces! Luckily enough over half of the recipes call for us to wait 6-8 weeks before eating.The author has long since passed away, but like the Edmond's cookbook which I have been living off for the past few years, is a staple in all New Zealand homes.

Whilst we were sitting outside one night with the evening glass of wine, our son long since been put to bed, my husband made the joke that as far as he could see anything could be made into a relish. Scoffing I rambled off a couple of vegetables and fruit to find that not only was there a relish, but a chutney, a way to preserve it and a sauce. Then I realised from our last shipment from Aussie Farmers Direct I had received a Pineapple, which was going to go to waste. (It would only be used to make Pina Colada's if only I had not drunk all the rum in a prior sitting.) To my surprise when I shouted from the kitchen "what about Pineapple" my husband flicked me the book resting on "Pineapple Relish".
Here was my new test, can I, the person who burns water, makes scones that birds won't eat as 1) they can't peck into them or 2) if they do eat them they will end up unable to fly and thus prey to our cat,  make a relish?? I was game enough and you know what, I think I did ok!

I strongly recommend that if you are making this, just prior to it being taken off the heat, to have a quick taste to see if you like it. The cool thing with relishes is that you can manipulate the quantity of the ingredients to your tasting.

Pineapple Relish

makes about 1 litre

1 Large Pineapple
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Cider Vinegar
1 tsp Curry Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger

METHOD

1. Peel and core the Pineapple. Cut into small (tiny!) pieces and place into a large saucepan.
2. Barely cover the Pineapple with water, bring to boil and then simmer for 10 minutes
3. Drain all the water out of the saucepan. Then add the remaining ingredients to the pineapple
4. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then simmer, stirring often for 10 minutes.
5. Spoon into hot, clean jars and seal

So I didn't do the last step as I only had a small pineapple and ended up halving the recipe, but I was amazed at how nice this tasted! It goes well with cold pork or ham, or my personal favourite tasty cheese!