zippy, spicy relish...

Last year, son Derek had bought a jar of something called Millionaire Relish at our local farmers market. It was a corn zucchini relish preserve that was nice but it was incredibly sweet and he asked me if I could come up with something like it without all the sugar. I started off with a recipe off the internet that was called Zippy Zucchini Relish from ‘Canadian Living’ and I used stevia/krisda as the sweetener. It turned out okay and we ate it and missed it when it was gone. I could hardly wait for the zucchini to get big enough to try it again this year.
I made a batch, looking at my notes from last year. I noted that it was a little dry, needs more sauce. I personally hate recipes that don’t have exact amounts – like, 4 zucchinis, 3 onions…how big are they? How much do I need? So I’ve kept track. The original recipe had red peppers and I can’t eat peppers so I substituted corn. Also the original told you to use the food processor to make ‘rice’ of the zucchini. I thought this was a disaster – there was too much big chunks and too much small stuff that escaped from the colander when it was time to drain it…the second time, I opted to chop it by hand, aiming for ¼ inch dice for all pieces that would sort of match the size of the corn kernels. I also added fresh grated ginger which is wonderful! My first batch this year was pretty good and then I got the brainwave to grill the corn instead of throwing it raw in with the rest of the raw vegetables to stew – OMG! You won’t believe what a difference that makes! Anyway, here is my perfected final recipe – it’s sugar-free, low salt, gluten free  –  great on burgers, dogs, any grilled meat! enjoy!

4 small zucchinis (12 inch) cut into  1/4 inch cubes (8 C total)

1 large Vidalia and 1 large red onion, chopped  (4C total)
1/8 cup pickling salt
Put in large stainless-steel or glass bowl; stir to blend. Let stand for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Drain well; rinse and drain again.
Make sauce: in heavy saucepan large enough to hold all (Dutch oven) combine:
Krisda  - 4 packets (each packet is 2 tsp equivalent)
2 C white vinegar
1/2 C cider vinegar
1 Tbsp dry mustard
2 tsp celery seeds
1.5 inch fresh ginger, finely grated
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 Tbsp hot pepper flakes
Bring to boil. Add drained vegetables; reduce heat and simmer, stirring often, until vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.
While this is happening, grill 6 ears fresh peaches and cream corn – leave in the husk, grill on medium heat, 20 minutes, turning every 5 minutes. Let corn cool. Remove husks and silks. Cut kernels off and break apart. (6 C total)
Add corn to cooked vegetables. If it looks dry, add ½ to 1 C water.

Mix 1 Tbsp cornstarch with 1 Tbsp cool water and stir into relish; simmer, stirring, mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.
Pack into 12- 1 cup (250 mL) canning jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Remove any air bubbles, readjusting headspace if necessary. Cover with prepared lids. Screw on bands until resistance is met; increase to fingertip tight. Boil in boiling water canner for 15 minutes.

canning...

I make a lot of food with tomato sauce and have been canning tomatoes for several years – usually a job for the Labour Day weekend but I’m early this year because we went to Metro the other day and they had the 25-pound boxes of Roma tomatoes for sale – fairly cheap at $8 per box. I thought I’d write down what I do and maybe brag a bit about an outstanding piece of equipment I have!
I used to have an old food mill that was rather lame, seemed to be messy and a real pain and mostly just ground everything up. A few years ago, my daughter let me use this ‘tomatopress’ that she had – a friend had brought it from Italy for her and it’s good. It locks onto your flat surface, you load the hopper on top, place a bowl behind to catch the juice and pulp and then there is a chute at the side that spits out the seeds and skin and anything that won’t go through the fine sieve and you just turn the handle and watch it work. I was lucky enough to spot the exact one at Williams-Sonoma last year and I love it – I also use it for applesauce and mixed fruit compote.
My old method of doing tomato sauce was a two to three-day process – score the top stem of the tomatoes, throw them in boiling water to loosen the skins, put them through the food mill and then boil everything down to get a nice thick sauce. One time last year I had only a partial box and I decided to try roasting the tomatoes instead of boiling. WOW! What a difference, both in labour and in flavour!
This is my new method. Wash and clean the tomatoes. Set the oven to 400F convection with one rack on the bottom and one in the middle/high. Load the tomatoes in the broiler pan or whatever you have that has a bit higher sides – a cookie sheet isn’t deep enough. Do two trays at a time for one hour, rotating them half way through. Notice the little bit of char on the skins – that just adds to the flavour. After the hour, you will have nice soft cooked tomatoes and a fair amount of concentrated juice. Put through the food mill (I go three times to make sure you’re getting everything), dump results into a large pot to simmer away until all tomatoes are done. I don’t add anything – no salt, no sugar, no garlic, nothing, just a half teaspoon of fresh lemon juice to the top of each jar before putting the lids on (and then doing the water bath thing for 20 minutes). This way I can give them a as a gift to anyone regardless of their dietary restriction and they can use it however they want.

I ended up with 20 - 500ml/2-cup jars and got it all done by myself, no sweat in less than 8 hours total and didn’t have to worry about stirring and simmering and not burning anything!