Cooking corner

Green tomato pickle

It’s time to do something with the green tomatoes hanging on the vine which will now never ripen. Here is an old traditional, and easy, pickle recipe which will use quite a quantity of them.

Ingredients:
7 kg green tomatoes
900 gr onions
500 gr beans (or other similar soft vegetables)
900gr sugar
2.5 litre vinegar
½ cup flour
100 gr mustard
25 gr allspice
25 gr turmeric
25gr cloves
½ tsp cayenne pepper
100gr salt
Method
Cut up all the vegetables, put in pan, sprinkle with salt and leave overnight.
Strain off liquid and pour over vinegar (leaving a little to later mix dry ingredients).
Add spices in cloth bag.
Boil for 30 minutes.
Mix dry ingredients with vinegar and add to vegetables
Stir in sugar and boil for five minutes.
Remove spice bag, put pickle into jars and put on lids when cold.

Pickled Quinces
It’s been a bumper year for Quinces and here is a recipe for them sent in by Sue Wikinson
Pickled quinces will keep for weeks in the fridge and are delicious with cold meats and as part of a cheese board. The vinegary but aromatic fruit is especially good with ham but also try it chopped into a stuffing for pork or lamb.
Ingredients;
550ml cider vinegar
350g sugar
8 whole cloves
8black peppercorns
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
4 strips lemon rind
4 quinces large
Method;
Add all the ingredients, except the quinces, to a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring this slowly to the boil to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat.Leave for 30 minutes for the aromatics to flavor the vinegar.
Fruit; As quinces discolour quickly, prepare one fruit at a time. Peel, core and quarter each fruit then cut in half again. 1cm thick. Pop these straight into the vinegar and cover with a circle of baking paper. Bring the vinegar back to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Or until the fruit is tender when pierced with a knife.
Ladle into warm sterilized jars. Seal tightly label when they are cold and store in the fridge.