This week, Roy had rather a lot of onions in the house. Onions are always useful, boosting the flavour in most dishes, but Roy thought he might need to use a few of them up. He thought about pickling some of them, but they were much bigger than the onions you would usually use for making pickles. He still liked the idea of some sort of savory accompaniment to cheese or meat. Then he remembered his Aunty Glad's Apple and Chilli Relish. It is delicious, easy to make, lasts well and would use up a whole 10 onions - perfect!
You will need:
- 10 large of onions
- 10 very large cooking apples. Roy usually uses Granny Smith Apples for these sorts of recipes.
- 2 litres of brown vinegar
- 2 kilograms of sugar
- 1 heaped teaspoon of salt
- Fresh chillies to taste. Roy used 2 long red chillies and 6 small, Birds Eye Chillies
Method:
- Peel and roughly chop your onions and apples (core the apples too!) You don't want huge pieces because they will take a long time to cook, but you don't need them really fine because you will use a stick blender on the mix later. Transfer them to a large stock pot.
- Add the sugar and vinegar to the pot
- Roughly cut the chillies up. Roy leaves the seeds in his chillies, but you can remove them if you like. Put the chillies into the pot. Be careful not to rub your eyes while you have chilli juice on your hands. Wash them carefully as soon as you finish with the chillies.
- Add the salt
- Transfer the pot to the stove and bring to the boil.
- Turn the heat down and simmer the mix until it becomes thick.
- Use a stick blender to make the relish smoother (Roy leaves his a little chunky but you can make yours as smooth or chunky as you like)
- Taste and, if it needs more chilli, you can add some dried chilli flakes and let the mix cook for 10 minutes more
- Put a little relish onto a plate and let it cool. Run your finger through the relish to make sure it is thick enough. Your finger should leave a line in the relish.
- Put the hot relish into sterilized jars, cover with clingwrap (and then the jar lids) to store and enjoy. To find out how to sterilize the jars, click here and go to the bottom of the post.
- This relish is great with meat and cheeses.