Canning Cookbook- Jalapeno Hot Dog Relish

This summer at The Little Lake House we included several different hot pepper varieties in the garden. Not only do we love spicy foods but so do many of our friends and we love sharing our spicy goodies. Hot peppers have created some wonderful relishes, pickles and salsa around here, and a few experiments in mustard and hot sauce for chicken wings. 

Now while we do often grow many of the super hot peppers like ghost chilies and Trinidads, most of those are just too hot for the majority of our friends. Jalapenos and Serranos are very popular choices for spicy recipes that won't melt your face off quite as bad. Removing the seeds and webby membrane and you scale back the heat significantly, making jalapenos, especially, perfect for pickling, candying, adding to pickles and kicking up the impact of relish recipes.

While most peppers find their way into salsas I like to find creative ways to use them in recipes outside of the realm of spicy/hot/Mexican/salsa. Being a fairly new relish convert, just seemed natural to me that the peppers make their way into a relish recipe! This relish is really delicious and has loads of flavor- perfect for topping a grilled brat. Like most relishes, this recipe starts the night before, tossing the veggies with salt and chilling overnight to bring out the excess water. This step can be skipped if you are like me, and can't wait to get it in the jars.

Fresh from the garden cucumbers make the best relish

Spicy Pepper Pickle Relish

6 cups cucumber,  shredded or finely chopped

4 cups jalapeno, finely chopped*

4 red bell peppers, finely chopped

2 large red onions, finely chopped

2 tablespoons salt

2 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar

2 1/2 cups sugar

4 teaspoons celery seed

2 tablespoons mustard seed

2 tablespoons dried dill

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

* Remove seeds and membranes to keep the heat level down.

Toss the vegetables with the salt in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, rinse and drain thoroughly. Set aside.

In a large stockpot combine the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the rinsed and drained vegetables. Return to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pack the relish into hot canning jars to 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe the rims and fix lids and rings. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool overnight before checking seals.

If this recipe sounds familiar to you, it should! It's a very close variation of my all time favorite zucchini relish, with different vegetables. The cucumber stays a little cruncher than zucchini and if you chop it instead of shredding it, you retain even more texture. That crunchier texture is the perfect topping for burgers, dogs, brats, sandwiches of all kinds. The jalapeno gives it a nice heat without being too mouth-melting.

Canning Cookbook- Relish Roundup

Summer garden season is in full swing in Iowa and we have the garden bounty to prove it. Tomatoes, corn, greens of all kinds, zucchini and peppers, glorious peppers. Hot, sweet and super hot- if you're like me you have an abundance of peppers and need some creative ways to preserve them. As much as we love salsa, seriously, you can only make so much before you start thinking you've lost your mind so I often make up a few relishes every year. It's a great way to use up some odd peppers I have sitting around and relish recipes are super easy to adapt to what you have on hand. They are a pickled food, so there is a little more room for varying the ingredients without worrying about having a product that shouldn't be canned. The vinegar provides the acidity you need.

This first relish recipe is a great way to use up peppers. I often reach the end of the season and have a pile of different peppers of several varieties. In this recipe you need 3 quarts of chopped peppers- the type is up to you. Bell peppers have no heat so start with them and add hot peppers to the heat level you like. A mix of colors in your peppers makes a very pretty relish in the jar too.

Go easy on the super hots!! 

NOTE: These recipes have not been tested by the NCHFP. If you are not comfortable canning untested recipes, please do not use them.

Spicy Pepper Relish

3 quarts finely chopped peppers*

2 large onions, finely chopped

2 cups apple cider vinegar

1 cup red wine vinegar

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

*Start with bell peppers and add hot peppers to taste. I usually use about 2 1/2 quarts bell peppers and then add the hot peppers. We grow so many super hots a recipe can get out of control hot very easily if I'm not careful.

A colorful mix of peppers makes a beautiful relish

Combine the vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper in a large stockpot. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the peppers and onions; return to boil and cook about 5 minutes.

Spoon the relish into half pint jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims; fix lids and rims, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 10 minutes. Allow to cool overnight before testing seals and removing rings.

I wasn't always a relish lover, in fact I have spent most of my adult life convinced I hated it. Maybe it was the bizarre neon green sweet pickle relish you see at concession stands. Something turned me off, that's for sure. It wasn't until a few years ago that I bravely made radish relish and became a convert. Likewise, I started wanting relish all the time. I started coming up with reasons to make hot dogs and brats- just so I could have relish. This relish recipe was shared with me by my friend Shelly, who says this is a copycat of the famous Coney Island hot dog stand recipe.

Coney Island Relish

5 cups finely minced cucumber

3 cups finely minced onion

2 bell peppers, finely minced

1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, finely minced

1 cup finely minced celery

4 cups apple cider vinegar

3 cups sugar

2 teaspoons mustard seed

2 teaspoons celery seed

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Heat the vinegar, sugar, seeds and pepper to boiling. Add the vegetables and simmer 20 minutes.

You can reduce the heat by removing the seeds and membranes

Pack the relish into half pint jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe rims; fix lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. Allow to cool overnight before checking seals and removing rings.

Everyone knows I love cookbooks. I have.......many. Church cookbooks especially. Many of the canning recipes in those old books are questionable by today's standards but a lot of pickle and relish recipes are great, including this Piccalilli- peppers and green tomatoes, the ultimate end-of-the-garden relish and I think you're going to love it.

Mom's Old Fashioned Piccalilli

5 cups finely chopped peppers (sweet and hot)

3 medium green tomatoes, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cups apple cider vinegar

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons mustard seed

pinch of cayenne pepper

In a large stockpot combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. Bring to a boil, then add the chopped vegetables and bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Spoon the relish into half pint jars. Wipe rims; fix lids and rings and process in boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. Allow to cool overnight before checking seals and removing rings.

Now that ought to keep you well stocked with relish until next summer, and have a few jars to give away as gifts too. Give these a try and let me know what you think!

Canning Cookbook- Chinatown Plum Sauce

Ohhhhhhh I have been waiting a year to be able to make this sauce! Ever since hitting the jackpot- finally, after 2 years of searching the Iowa countryside, I finally found wild plums last summer. So now that I know where all the trees are, I just needed to get through winter, spring and summer again and voila! Plums! I have been wanting to make an Asian plum sauce. Why a plum sauce? Iowa's native wild plums ripen to a gorgeous ruby red and become juicy and sweet like other plums but they are TINY- and that makes it hard to do much with them other than sauces and jams. I have a huge stockpile of jam already so, plum sauce it is!

Just the other day they were green!!

I love learning new techniques and new styles of cooking and Asian foods is definitely a weak spot. Maybe the perfect plum sauce will inspire me to explore Asian recipes and sharpen up my skills! Anyway, let's round up some plums and make this sauce. I am using Iowa wild plums but you can use any plum you like, you just need 10 cups pitted and chopped. Peel the plums if you like, I didn't- they break down well in cooking. You will need-

• 10 cups chopped, pitted plums, peeled if desired
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup regular sugar
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 medium onion, finely minced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 2 tb finely minced/shredded gingerroot or 1 tb dried ground
• 3 tb crushed red pepper
• 1 tb salt

In crockpot, combine plums with all other ingredients. Cover and set to high. When boiling, turn heat to low and cook several hours until thickened. 

Since it's VERY early in the wild plum season, I had to
supplement with store bought plums, cut up.

To get the perfect smooth sauce, buzz in a blender or food processor for a few seconds. Reheat if necessary.

Red onion, freshly garlic and spicy ginger make the sauce pop!

Ladle hot sauce into half pint or pint jars leaving half inch headspace. Wipe rim, fix lids and rings. Process in boiling water bath for ten minutes. Remove and cool, check for seals after about 12 hours.

This sauce makes an awesome dipping sauce for egg rolls or a great base for a stir fry sauce. You can tame the heat by using a little less crushed red pepper if you like. It's also great for tossing with chicken wings for a Asian take on wings. Depending on the plums you choose you will get a beautiful sauce anywhere from golden yellow to deep purple. 

Hurry up and ripen guys!! I have plans for you!

This recipe is safe for home canning- it's very similar to the recipe featured by Bernardin in Canada. The only differences are in seasonings, the acid is still in there. Safety should always be on the forefront of your mind as a home canner. The internet can be a scary place when it comes to canning recipes with a lot of people touting outdated and unsafe methods. Please check a reputable source before trying a recipe if you're not sure if it's safe.

Southwest Sunday

It's a dreary, cool but humid, nasty semi-rainy Sunday at the Little Lake House. I am done canning for a few days so it's time to clean up the kitchen and cook a real meal. A quick look through the pantry and a suggestion from The Chef and we're having pan roasted boneless pork country style ribs and Spanish rice.

The pork really doesn't have a recipe, per se. I started with a package of 6 boneless country style pork ribs, rubbed them liberally with a good barbeque meat rub and seared in a hot cast iron skillet. Once they were nicely seared, I popped them in the oven at 400 degrees to finish. It took about 15 minutes to reach that perfect, juicy 145 degrees for perfect pork.

Meanwhile, I got started on The Chef's Spanish Rice. You will need-

• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 cup rice (not instant)
• chili powder
• cumin
• 1 1/2 cups chopped tomato, reserve juice
• water
• cooking oil

Start by heating a tablespoon or two of oil in a deep skillet or stockpot. Add onion, peppers and garlic and saute for a couple minutes until softened. Add rice, chili powder and cumin to taste- we like spicy so I used about 3 tb chili powder and several dashes of cumin and stirred well. 

Add tomatoes to pot- I used a quart a home-canned chopped tomatoes and saved the liquid, but you can use store-bought or fresh tomatoes. Add enough water to juice to make 2 1/2 cups and add that to pot. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer 15-20 minutes until rice is done. Stir occasionally and add more water if needed to prevent sticking.

Serve the rice with the pork and enjoy!