Piccalilli

This year, something kind of unfortunate happened with the timing of my CSAs. My winter one started much earlier than last year, meaning that I had two CSA boxes to pick up for the past three weeks straight.

This is mostly not a problem, because the squash and root veggies can sit happily for weeks to no ill effect. But listen to the craziness that is going on in my kitchen right now. On top of my farmers market cauliflower, I also got a cauliflower from a CSA. I have three butternut squash, one carnival squash, three pattypan squash, four (?) acorn squash, one delicata squash, one spaghetti squash, three kohlrabi, at least three pounds of carrots, turnips, beets, and three pumpkins. Oh, and two bags of spinach, a bag of kale, collard greens, onions, potatoes, and apples. And a partridge in a f*cking pear tree.

At this point, it's just about using up what needs to be used up first. I made spinach Julia Child-style the other day and I've been eating raw carrots with almost every meal. I also made some aloo gobhi (potato and cauliflower curry) the other day.

Last night, I decided to use up some of the cauliflower, carrots, and kohlrabi to make piccalilli - a spicy yellow Indian / British vegetable pickle. It's a weird recipe, but here it goes.

First, you have to soak the veggies in a brine. I cut up one yellow cauliflower head, four carrots, two pieces of kohlrabi, and three medium red onions. You soak that in a water-salt brine for 24 hours. This helps draw out the moisture and keep the pickled vegetables crunchy.

The next day, you make a paste with some mustard (OK, a lot of mustard), some turmeric, flour, and sugar. You make the paste by mixing it all together and adding just enough vinegar.

Once the paste is mixed, you boil it with the rest of the vinegar for about 15 minutes. I was kind of questioning why the paste was necessary, since you just boil it in the rest of the vinegar anyway, but I think this helps prevent lumps.

While the vinegar mixture is boiling, I heated my jars and began boiling water in my big pot. I used to heat the jars in the oven and boil all the lids in a separate pot, but lately, I have been heating the jar lids in the boiling water for the canning bath, then just taking them out with tongs. It saves dishes that way.

Pack and process:

Look at my beautiful jars of piccalilli! Apparently it goes really well with meats and cheeses.

I will probably do some kind of salad to go with an Indian meal in the near future, so I think this will go very nicely. I may also give some to my cheesemonger, since he helped me secure a pre-order of Rush Creek Reserve!!