Relish

Okay, I promise the postings about canning and my garden are soon coming to an end. In fact, this may be my last post about it....maybe. The season is drawing to a close, and it is slowly getting out of my system. I'm moving on to greener pastures.

But, this recipe is for my friend Rachael - and for anyone else who has let a few of their cucumbers go by the wayside and realized that they have gotten rather ginormous. It's an awesome way to finish out your cucumber harvest. This relish is a great way to justify not wanting to eat another single cucumber....and yet they keep growing.....but I just can't eat another one.....so I'll just let them grow and see what happens....but oh man, I can't just let them go to waste....whatever shall I do with them.....kind of a recipe.

So, here comes this fabulous recipe to the rescue!

14 humungous cukes - or a whole wack of smaller ones....you can really be generous here
10 large onions - or 20 small ones.....again, it's all "ish" in the amounts

Peel the cukes. Cut them lengthwise and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. Put both these and the onions through a food processor. (Or if you don't have one, like me, just chop all of them up really small.....prepare for a huge crying fest with all of the onions....and plan this recipe accordingly, because onion smell will ooze through your pores for a few days. It's awesome).

Pour 1/2 cup pickling salt over all of this. Stir it up, and let it sit overnight.
(This is how I do it. Baby in sink not required).

Day #2
Drain well in colander. DO NOT rinse.
Heat 4 cups cider vinegar in a heavy pan. Get it hot but not boiling.
Take 2 cups of cold vinegar and whisk it together with 1 cup flour.
To the vinegar/flour mixture add:
~ 7 cups packed brown sugar (a recurring theme here on the unhealthiness of these recipes)
~ 4 TBlsp. tumeric
~ 1 tsp. ginger
~ 1/4 tsp. black pepper

Mix that all together and add it to the hot vinegar on the stove.
Boil this slowly for 5 minutes while stirring steadily.
Add your drained (but not rinsed) cukes and onions.
Bring to a boil again slowly - do not burn it!
Turn down the heat, and boil slowly for 10-12 minutes.

Ladle into hot, sterilized jars and lids.

Yeilds 12-17 pints - depending on how huge your cukes and onions were.
Just to give you an idea of the "general-ness" of the amounts: My first batch gave me 12 pints exactly, and Mom's gave her close to 20! Methinks she had more ginormous-er cukes!

This is really yummy on top of dogs and burgers or just on the side of your plate with any meal. I promise you, you'll never use storebought relish again.

One final note: If you hand chop your veggies like I did, it will turn out with more of a chutney consistency as opposed to a relish. We've found that we actually like the chunkier consistency better. Enjoy, dear friend!