Being an expat there are always a few things you miss from home. Take Branston Pickle. Now we can get Branston Pickle when we go back to the UK and we can buy it from the English section of the local supermarket if we are prepared to pay an exorbitant price but really we needed to find something that we liked as much as Branston and also hopefully used some ingredients we often have an excess of. Enter my friend J with her hot chilli courgette pickle recipe. It has a similar texture to Branston and a taste not too unlike it, although quite a bit hotter which we like, and perhaps most importantly, it helps use up the annual courgette glut.
Chilli Courgette Pickle
Ingredients
- 2.7kg/6lb Courgette finely- a mixture of yellow and green courgettes give a nice colour to the pickle
- 85g/3oz salt
- 425g/1lb Onions finely diced
- 3 hot chillies very finely diced with seeds (more if you like things really hot)
- 1litre/2 pts cider vinegar
- 500g/1lb 2 oz dark brown sugar
- 225g/8oz Demerara sugar
- 3tsp Turmeric
- 3tsp dry mustard powder
- 30g/1.5oz cornflour
 |
| Diced courgettes |
Method
Makes 6 x 425g/1lb jars
1. Steep courgette in the salt for 3hrs
2. Rinse the courgettes well and drain in a tea towel/muslin in a colander or in a jelly bag overnight.
3. When fully drained boil up the courgettes with the rest of ingredients (except sugar and cornflour) until the vegetables are just soft.
4. Add the sugar and boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Mix the cornflour with a little cold water, add to the pickle and then boil to thicken, stirring to stop it sticking.
6. Pour into hot sterilised jars and put the lids on when hot.
 |
| Chilli Courgette Pickle ready to pot up |
Leave the pickle for a month to allow the favours to develop and then enjoy!
Tom and I particularly love this pickle - it's great with so many things including cheese sandwiches, scrambled eggs, curries and salads.
 |
| Chilli courgette pickle |
Do you have a favourite pickle or courgette recipe? Please do let us know about it if you do. We still have a lot of courgettes to get through!
Linking up with lots of food linkies including TastyTuesday, Recipe of the Week and #FoodieTuesday
This sounds lovely! We have so many courgettes at the moment I have even pickled some, which is really tasty with onions x #TastyTuesdays
ReplyDeleteMmm - might try pickled courgettes - I have previously substituted courgettes in a cucumber pickle recipe successfully.
DeleteI gave up growing courgettes, too much of a glut and no-one liked them! As for chutney, I can 100% recommend Delia Smith's recipe for Dowerhouse Chutney - it's the one I always turn to! Recipe is here if you're interested http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=54883.0
ReplyDeleteThank you - I'll take a look.
DeleteSounds fab, like a spicy piccalilly :-) #tastytuesdays
ReplyDeleteYes, it is but then I often add chilli to my piccalilli too!
DeleteI've never tried making pickle, although my mum used to do a lot of chutneys. And I remember my dad making marrow jam one year which was delicious. I tend to put courgettes in pasta dishes and quiches
ReplyDeleteWe are are at the stage of courgettes with everything ... and I too have made marrow jam with both ginger and dried apricots - both are yummy!
DeleteI'm going to have to try this, Rosie. It seems simple enough, right?
ReplyDeleteBTW, I can relate to not finding foods from home or having to pay an arm and a leg for them. Good thing you came up with this. Thanks for linking up this week and with something similar to mine. Enjoy the rest of your week!
PS: I'm off on holiday next week so no FoodieTuesday until I get back. Enjoy and thanks again for linking up!
Yes - it is very simple ... and have a lovely holiday!
DeleteThis looks lovely and it seems so simple. I have never tried making pickle, I must put it on my attempt list after my chutney success
ReplyDeleteDo give it a go ... although exactly what the difference is between a chutney and a pickle is a mystery to me!
DeleteSounds wonderful. I'm another who's never tried pickkling and am always so impressed when someone else does it. Time to give it a go me thinks! #tastytuesday #pinned
ReplyDeleteI love making pickles and chutneys and they are not difficult. Go for it :)
DeleteOh wow love the sound of this and pictures look great! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteThat looks amazing. I need to get back into preserving - it's very therapeutic. Thanks so much for linking up with #recipeoftheweek. Sorry I was particularly slow getting over for this one. I've pinned it to my food board and a tweet will go out shortly :)
ReplyDeleteCame across this blog during a Google recipe hunting session. I've made up a bumper batch of this to use up a mutant courgette of truly staggering proportions and it's delicious, and I'm sure will get even better as it matures. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you and I am glad I could help you to do something with the mutant courgette.
DeleteNow on my third batch of this, can't imagine a cheese sandwich without it, and such a great use for the glut! Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteI agree!
DeleteSounds amazing, I've got half a tonne of courgette to use up, going to give this one a try. Can you please let me know how long it stores for?
ReplyDeleteI have certainly kept it for a year but most chutneys keep for longer than that. I have had green tomato chutney that was 4 years old and the flavour was beautiful.
Delete