Chilli Jam

My mother in law gave us some chilli bushes to plant. She has a few going at her house too. Between us we have more chillies than we know what to do with. My mother in law usually hangs them up to dry and then process' them to make chilli flakes. Since we had plenty of chilli flakes I decided to make a chilli jam of sorts. This can be used on the side of the meal or in cooking. As it is a preserve it will keep for a number of months in the fridge. However there is a warning, you need to have a little taste and see how hot your chillies are. If they are hot I recommend deseeding at least half. If they are not hot not you can leave them all in. Obviously the other factor here is "how hot do you like it ?".

*You'll need to have sterilised jars for this recipe. If you have a dishwasher then that will sterilise them. If not you'll have to do what I do and boil them for ten minutes then dry them out in a very low oven. Or use your friends dishwasher.

INGREDIENTS

Makes about three jars depending on jar size

500g of chillies

4 onions

 3 cloves of garlic

1 tbs of good quality sea salt

1 cup of raw organic sugar

250g of grape seed oil

200ml of vinegar 

DIRECTIONS

Peel and roughly chop your onions and garlic. Roughly chop your chillies and deseed half of them if you need to. Place your chillies, onions, garlic, salt and grape seed oil in the blender and process until you have a paste, this will take 30 seconds to a minute. Cook in a heavy based pot for an hour, on low to medium heat stirring regularly. After an hour add the sugar and vinegar and continue to cook for another half hour to an hour. Still continue to stir it regularly to avoid burning. It's ready when it the oil starts to separate, it's dark and thick and jam like. Place in sterilised jars while it's still hot. 

Enjoy!

Zucchini Pickles

One of my very good friends told me that she had the most amazing zucchini pickles with poached eggs on toast at a cafe. So naturally that night I decided to try and make some zucchini pickles of my own. I've made them a few times now and they're always a big hit and they go with all kinds of things. It's a great thing to do with zucchini's at the end of the season (which is now in Australia). They also store in the fridge for a really long time although they usually get eaten pretty quickly. 

*You'll need to have sterilised jars for this recipe. If you have a dishwasher then that will sterilise them. If not you'll have to do what I do and boil them for ten minutes then dry them out in a very low oven. Or use your friends dishwasher.

INGREDIENTS

2kg zucchini

7 tbsp good quality sea salt

2 cups of organic raw sugar

4 cups of apple cider vinegar 

2 tbsp of dijon mustard

4 small onions

2 tsp of mustard seeds

1tsp of fennel seeds

1 tsp of caraway seeds

2 tsp of nigella seeds

DIRECTIONS

makes about 4 jars depending on jar size

Firstly ribbon your zucchinis. I just use a vegetable peeler to do this but you could use a mandolin or a food processor. then cut your onions in half, lengthways and then thinly slice them into half rounds. Place in a bowl, add the salt and massage it in, leave for 10 minutes. Meanwhile place the remaining ingredients into a pot and bring to the boil. When boiling reduce to medium heat and simmer for five minutes. Set aside to cool.

Strain your zucchini and onions and rinse well under cold water. Leave them to dry between tea towels for five minutes and then pat them as dry as you can. Fill the jars with the zucchini, onions and pickling liquid. They're best left for at least 24 hrs but they're still pretty good strait away. Below, I've served them with sheep's feta and parsley on spouted kamut and spelt toast.

Enjoy!