I fancy pickling!

It’s ages since I made any pickles… I don’t mean chutney (although it’s a long time since I made any of that, and nobody in the family likes chutney…) but pickled vegetables… say for example… piccalilli… Yes, I fancy some, and I’ve found a new recipe using cider vinegar – I wonder if adding chopped dessert apples to the vegetable mix would be nice? And maybe some cloves?:

• 2 lbs mixed vegetables of your choice, cut into similar sized chunks – e.g cauliflower, carrots, runner beans (be careful that they are tender and haven’t got hard skins) courgettes, marrow… whatever you fancy!
• 2 large onions and 1 red pepper peeled and finely chopped
• 2 oz salt
• 6 oz sugar
• ¾ pint cider vinegar
• 2 tsp mustard powder
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp cornflour
• tsp each of cumin and coriander seeds
• 2 extra  tblsp  cider vinegar

1. put the all the vegetables in a bowl, add salt, mix well and leave to stand for at least 1 hour.  (the recipe says drain well, I would actually drain and then give a little rinse – I’ve sometimes ended up with very salty end product!)
2. mix the sugar, vinegar, mustard  and turmeric  and bring to the boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved, then take off the heat
3.  mix the cornflour  with the extra vinegar, make sure there are no lumps
4. stir the cornflour into spicy sugary vinegar, stirring well
5.  return to the heat  and cook for a couple of minutes
6. carefully fold in the diced, salted, rinsed vegetables
7. spoon into warm sterilised jars
8. leave for 4-6 weeks before opening and enjoying!