Adding a couple of chillies gives a welcome touch of heat to this classic pickle recipe. As we move into the Autumn now is the time to make a few jars and leave to mature, ready for for the festive season where it is a must have accompaniment to cold meat cuts, cheeses and my favourite, pork pies (and being an East Midlands girl at heart only Melton Mowbray pies will do).
You might think there is alot of salt in this recipe but it’s purpose is to extract the water from the vegetables to ensure they keep crisp in the finished pickle. Once you have left the vegetables layered in the salt for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight, you will rinse off the salt before beginning the cooking process. This is the main difference between chutneys and pickles. The cooking process for chutneys is long and slow whereas with pickles the ingredients are cooked for a very short amount of time, if at all.
Large le Parfait jars are ideal for chunky piccalilli
Makes about 6 227g jars
1.3 kg vegetables – a mixture of any of the following: cauliflower, baby onions or shallots, cucumber, tomatoes, runner beans, green peppers, carrots, celery
2 red chillies (optional)
100g sea salt
600ml distilled malt vinegar or white wine vinegar
90g caster sugar
1 tbsp mustard powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
1tsp turmeric
20g cornflour
1. Wash and prepare the vegetables into equal sized pieces, I like to keep mine quite chunky and so tend to chop everything to around 2cm cubes.
2 Layer the vegetables and chillies (if using) in a large bowl, sprinkling each layer as you go with salt.
3. Put a plate on top of the vegetables and then place a few food tins on top of the plate to press down onto the vegetables. Leave for at least 8 hours or overnight.
4. Drain and rinse the vegetables.
5. Whisk the cornflour with 100ml of vinegar until smooth and set aside.
6. Put the rest of the vinegar, sugar and spices into a large pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
7. Add the vegetables and chillies and bring to the boil.
8. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, the vegetables should be just tender. Don’t overcook as you want the vegetables to remain crisp and crunchy.
9. Add the cornflour/vinegar mixture to the vegetables.
10. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for another 2 minutes. You will see that the sauce coating the vegetables will have thickened and have a silky gloss to it.
11. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
12. Ladle into hot sterilised jars and seal.
Leave for 4-6 weeks to mature.
