In the kitchen this week - more preserving!

Me in the kitchen, where I seem to live just lately!

Good tip: If you use lots of spices, don't spend a fortune on those silly little boxes or bottles at the supermarket. Go to your local Indian or Asian store and buy them by the scoop! In the picture I filled 6 jars of spices and got a big bottle of white vinegar and it only came to $5.50!

Preserving

The plums have gone you'll be pleased to know, BUT one crop ends another begins! Well other peoples crops it seems! Our tomatoes are only just begining to ripen although the cucumbers are coming thick and fast. Then one of our neighbours turned up with a big basket of pears and another neighbour with a load of cherry tomatoes. More to come from those in a later post.
A friends gave me some scallopinis, our courgettes have been a total non event, but we got some from the neighbours garden, (we didn't steal them!) and we had our own cucumbers.
I asked at Down to Earth for recipes for cucumber/courgettes etc. here
(You will need to sign up to view the thread) Calliecat posted this recipe:

Ingredients:
1kg cucumber/zucchini
2 large onions
Salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup vinegar
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp tumeric
Method:
Slice veggies thinly(I diced them) and cover with handful of salt. Stand 2 hours, then rinse off. In a saucepan bring other ingredients to a boil. Boil for 4 minutes, add sliced vegetables and return to boil. Pour into clean jars. This pickle is very tasty with cheese and bickies etc and perfect to use up a glut of cucumbers or zucchini.

Calliecat said "depends on personal tastes of course, but I can say these are yum
any soft vegie can be used ie capsicum as well if you need to make up to 1kg "

On my forum Webber's Whacky World (you will need to sign up to view) I asked the same question 'In the Kitchen'. Clucking Crazy(she is too ya know!) gave me this recipe:

This is a Digby law recipe - he is the king of pickles !!
Really nice and easy cucumber relish
You will need:
500g peeled and cored apples
2 cups malt vinegar
500g sugar
1 tsp white pepper
2 tsp curry powder
2 tablespoon tumeric (gives that nice bright colour)
1 tablespoon salt
500 g onions minced
750 g peeled and minced cucumber (I used my blade on the food processor to chop up the onion and cucumber)

Method:
Cook the apples in the vineagr for about 5 minutes
Add sugar,pepper,curry,tumeric salt and minced onions and boil till onions are soft

Add cucumber to pot and boil another 5 or so minutes.

Pour into hot jars and seal
makes about 3 litres.

The end results: