Relishes

One thing I’ve always struggled to find is good fruit relish. No sooner do I find one than wherever I’m buying it stops stocking it! I’m like the kiss of death. I think because a lot of shops want to sell a product that has a bit more interest to it, so stock slightly odd flavours or obscure ingredients. Not that they don’t have their place, but they’re a bit harder to work into everyday meals. I’m also allergic to mango, which seems to be in almost all of them!

Fruit relish is great with cheese and crackers, on a sandwich with cold cuts and a nice mustard, as a quick topping for cooked meats of any sort – literally anywhere you have something savoury that could do with some extra moisture and flavour.

Given I can’t find any, and trust me I’ve looked – it’s literally the first question I ask when I walk into a new shop – this is a time when I’m providing a recipe. The beauty of a relish is that you can make it out of whatever is in your kitchen at the time. The base of it is fresh and dried fruit and if your house is anything like mine, there is usually some slightly damaged apples and pears floating around that have made the trip to school and back a couple of times. After their travels, they’re a bit dinged up, and therefore do not pass the kids’ rigorous inspection criteria, but are still perfectly good. As a side note, how is it kids can be so picky about the quality of produce, yet a chicken nugget is a cause for celebration? Anyway, this is an excellent way of using up fruit, as well as any odds and ends of dried fruit and random spices left over from Christmas.

 

Basic Relish Recipe

(makes approximately 6 jam jars)

1.7kg fruit ( I used apples, pears & tomatoes)

300g dried fruit ( I used sultanas, currents, cranberries, figs & dried peaches)

2 onions

4 tsp salt

300g sugar

100g brown sugar

550ml white vinegar

Juice & zest of 1 orange (or similar fruit)

2tsp of whatever spices you like (I used a couple of juniper berries, some cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, a few whole cloves, a pinch of ground cardamom, some fennel seeds and about 15-20g of grated fresh ginger)

1 cinnamon stick

Chop all ingredients into small pieces (to save time you could do in a food processor, though the pieces would be more irregularly shaped). I don’t bother peeling the apples or pears – this is rustic food and it really doesn’t make any difference so I just remove the worst of the bruised bits. Put all ingredients into a large saucepan and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and bubble away for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the mixture has thickened and most of the liquid has cooked off.

 

 

Sterilize 6 jars (I put them in a 140°C oven for 10 minutes, but there are lots of other methods). Fill with the slightly cooled relish and cover with cling wrap before sealing the jars. Let cool further before putting them in the fridge.

Now I can’t bring you a taste, but it is absolutely delicious and far superior in every way to the overly sweet and smooth pastes you often find. There is no doubting that it’s homemade, but that works in its favour. Now as well as having a very tasty condiment, you can make others very happy as it makes a great gift that looks like it’s been hard work but really hasn’t!