Red pepper relish

April 10, 2008

Autumn is the time to preserve the harvest for the winter months ahead. While we may no longer bottle the fruit and make the jams previous generations did, many of us like to make pickles and chutneys.

I always make a batch or two of tomato relish for my breakfast toast. I don’t know where I picked up this strange eating habit, but I’ve been making tomato relish for years now. Fortunately for me, no one else in the family likes the stuff, so the stash is mine, all mine.

Tomato relish out of the way, I checked out the market to see what else I might make. Red peppers were on special so I grabbed a large bag of them and got to work in the kitchen.

Red pepper relish is great to serve with cheese and crackers or with a hearty homemade terrine. It has a fresh flavour and a wonderful jewel-like vibrant colour and can also be used for perking up a sauce or salad dressing. In fact it’s a great little “secret ingredient”.

A food processor is the gadget of choice when it comes to preparing this recipe. It makes short work of chopping the peppers and finely dicing the onions. I prefer to use small jars for this pickle. Sterilise them in the dishwasher before use. Refrigerate the relish once opened.

Red pepper relish

3 medium onions
2 tablespoons salt
6 large red peppers
1 or 2 chillies
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar
3/4 cup castor sugar
1-2 tablespoons cornflour mixed with a little water

Finely chop the onions, sprinkle them with salt and set aside for three hours.

Remove the tops, seeds and white membrane from the peppers and chop finely. Peel and deseed the chillies and chop finely.

Drain any liquid from the onions. Place the onions, peppers, chillies, mustard seeds, celery seeds, turmeric, vinegar and castor sugar in a large stainless steel pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the cornflour paste and stir through to thicken.

Spoon into sterilised jars and seal.

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