Homemade Relish -Jalapenos or Not- No Canning Required

It happens to all of us, we try to tend the garden and pick everything at it's peak but those zucchini are sneaky! I came home to a big one the other day, not super huge but about 10" by 3". I decided to try a small batch of relish that can be made and enjoyed for a cookout without the hassle of canning it. This does require a little time but I think bringing your own homemade relish to the BBQ is worth it!

Confessions of a kitchen toy junkie: While I love the big food processor, my favorite toy for this is still the Kitchen Aid 3 Cup Chopper, I just like the consistency it makes for relish. 

The salting stage can stay in the fridge anywhere from 4 hours to overnight. I chopped the veggies before work and finished it after work. Here's what it looks like all wrung out, I ended up with about 2 cups of veggies.

Thoughts:

• This is a very flexible recipe, use what you have on hand. All cuke, all zuke or a medium sized one of each. I'm guessing I ended up with about 1 1/2 C chopped zucchini. My zuke was 10", if you end up with a really big one go ahead and use it, just cut the center with the seeds out. My seeds were still fairly soft.
• It's very pretty with red pepper, I didn't have any. If I went shopping to make this, I'd buy both red and green.
• If you don't have a carrot, leave it out... I just like the color.
• Don't have pickling spices? Use a few allspice, a few black pepper corns and break up a bay leaf.
• Jalapenos, if you choose to add them, wow-they are very good in this! I used (3) 3"-ish ones, I did take the seeds and membrane out of the biggest one, the others went into the chopper whole (well, stem removed). No question they're in there! You know your crowd, add more if you'd like, just reduce the bell pepper. 
• As it's cooking-taste it! Do you want more sugar? Maybe grating a little fresh ginger into it would be good? More mustard powder? Want more zing from the vinegar, add a splash! Have fun and make it your own!
• I ended up with a little over 2 cups of relish.
• I can give you general sizes and measurements for this because we're not canning it, nothing needs to be exact. You really can't go wrong as long as it's stored in the fridge. No idea what the Food Police would say about how long it should last, but I think it should be fine in the fridge for a couple weeks...

Turn that overgrown zuke into something even the kids will love! Just don't tell them it's in there:@)

Cucumber/Zucchini Relish-Small Batch
1 large zucchini or 2-3 large cucumbers or mix both-approx 1 1/2 cups chopped veggies
1 large green bell pepper, seeded or half green/half red or half a bell pepper and 3-4 jalapenos
1 medium onion
1 medium stalk celery
1 small carrot
1 Tblsp salt
2/3 C plus 1 Tblsp sugar
1/3 C cider vinegar-white vinegar is fine too
heaping tsp of pickling spice in tea ball, spice ball or cheesecloth
heaping 1/4 tsp celery seed
1/4 tsp dry mustard or 1/2 tsp mustard seed

1. Grate or chop all veggies, mix with salt and store in the fridge anywhere from 4 hours to overnight.
2. Squeeze the excess liquid out of the veggies. I put them onto a clean dish towel (in two batches) fold it over and wring them out. 
3. Add sugar, vinegar and pickling spices to a 2 quart pot. Heat to boiling, reduce to a low simmer, you don't want too much vinegar to evaporate. Gently simmer for 10 minutes. Remove spices.
4. Add veggies, celery seed and mustard to pot. Bring to a quick boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Pour into a bowl or jar, let cool, cover and store in the fridge.
6. This even gets better after it sits for a day or two.

Have a happy day!

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