Homemade Sauces/jams/pickles/relishes

[Muscroj]

This year I've started trying to make better use of the fruit we have growing in the garden.
I'm not a big fan of fruit puddings, other than raspberrys & strawberrys so still have a freezer drawer full of last years summer fruit which I've not known what to do with, so the other week I was cooking a curry & I made some japatis so wanted some lime pickle to go with it. The jar I had in the fridge was WELL passed it's use by date, so I looked at the ingedients on the back, got some gooseberrys out of the freezer and came up with this, it was FAB & a lovely alternative to the shop bought one but definatly had the indian characteristics!

Goosberrie Pickle - (a lime Pickle Substitute for Curry)

Lots of gooseberries
Some Cider Vinegar (probably about 50mlish)
Quite a bit of sugar, until I got that sweet & sour taste
Tumeric
Cumin
Coriander
Fenugreek
Salt
Pepper

Boil it all up until the gooseberries mush into nothing leave to cool & then stick it in the fridge. It should last a while due to the vinegar, so I've stuck it in a jam jar!

[Muscroj]

the following week I came up with this one, to substitute plum sauce to go with chinese duck pancakes

Blackberry & Rhubard Sauce (a chinese plum sauce substitute)

Blackberries,
3 stems of rhubarb,
garlic
2 tblspoons soy sauce
2 tblspoons of cider vinegar
honey
sugar
a squirt of Tomato ketchup
1 tspoon of All Spice
1 tspoon of Ginger
1 teaspoon of paprika

I really enjoyed making these & I'm planning on trying to make as many alternative sauces as I can from now on :)

[Millymollymandy]

Wow, well done, can you come up with a recipe that involves blackcurrants and redcurrants please?

[Muscroj]

lol, I wouldn't have a clue as I don't grow them, but hang on, I've got a great relishes & pickles book, I'll see if there's anything in there

[Muscroj]

OK the only thing she has listed is

Blackcurrents

Blackcurrent leaf tea (sounds interesting!)
Bottled blackcurrents
Mums blackcurrent jam
and blackcurrent vinegar

Redcurrents
Cordial
Jelly
& Juice

Any of them grab your fancy? Would I get into trouble if I were to post them here directly from a book? Its a great book if you grow soft fruit, it's from the River Cottage range, handbook number 2 - Preserves.

[Millymollymandy]

It's OK I was semi joking and I don't want you wasting time typing out recipes! Yes you can type up recipes from books as long as you credit the author and name the book (I think, otherwise it is breaching copyright laws - though I don't know the ins and outs of that)- actually it is exactly the same for copying and pasting a recipe from the internet - one 'should' credit where it comes from - though I think that half the recipes on the net are ones that people have copied from elsewhere, so where they actually originated is anybodies guess!

Redcurrants I've done jelly and coulis.

Blackcurrants this is my first year that I've got loads, so just mulling over what I'll do with them. Like you I still have some of last year's fruit in the freezer so have got to make some space for new ones, so I'm now chucking last year's frozen runner beans out, cos I can't turn them into jam!!! I haven't ever tried any Indian style pickles or chutneys though.

[StripyPixieSocks]

You can pickle runner beans and put them in Piccalilli!!

[boboff]

I made this, with my first glut of Radishes this year

Radish Relish



1lb Radish, grated

1lb Apple
1 Orange, juice and zest

This is where I cheated a bit the apple and orange were in the freezer from the previous autumn.

1 Onion
5 Tbsp Malt Vinegar
2 cloves Garlic ( I use the frozen chopped stuff from Morrisons 60p for 400g, last ages!)
4oz Sultanas
tsp Chilli Powder
tsp mixed spice
8oz of Sugar
Salt
Pepper


Cook till pinky brown, bottle, wait 3 months, eat!

It's a really nice taste, the radish flavor is still there but subdued.

It tastes quite "hot" when you first make it, but this settles down over time, and you can eat this with cheese, Pasties, S Rolls etc. It would also be great added to Curry.

I just hate wasting things, and Radishes seem to grow really fast, and abundantly, but there seems to be nothing else you can do with them except grate in salad. (bit of a Salad dodger me!)

[Muscroj]

The first year I tried to grow tomatoes none of them ripened as my greenhouse didn't get enough sun so I made a fab green tomato chutney, it was yummy. Unfortunatly I didn't write the recipe down as I took ingredients from a number of different recipes I found on-line, but I think it was simillar to your radish recipe. I'll have to have another go at recreating it this year & make sure I keep the recipe this time. My other problem is I never measure & weigh things when I do stuff like that, just keep adding spices/sugar/fruit until it tastes how I want it, so keeping a record turns out to be impossible!

[frozenthunderbolt]

You can pickle runner beans and put them in Piccalilli!!

I would love a good thick spicy Piccalilli recipie if anyone has one? I always find the bought stuff insipid and a bit too sweet.

[Millymollymandy]

Delia has a recipe for Spicy Pickled Runner Beans (there's a thread about it on this site somewhere) which is delish and we've just finished ours. You need to make it with fresh ones though not soggy old frozen ones - at least I don't fancy making it with soggy ones.

I'll try giving them to the chooks but they are very suspicious of any new veg and very fussy about green things and run terrified from lettuces.

Delia's recipe:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/spic ... 90,RC.html