Zucchini Relish

Summer is time for growing zucchinis or courgettes and if, like me, you have ended up with more of them than you (and your friends) can eat now then making relish so that you can enjoy them later is a good thing to do.

4 cups finely chopped zucchini (courgette)

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 large red, yellow or orange capsicum (sweet pepper)*

1/2 cup finely chopped celery

2 tbsp pickling salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups vinegar (white or cider)

1 tbsp celery seed (optional)

1 tsp mustard seed

1/2 tsp each: dry mustard and ground cloves*

*If you want a visually appealing as well as tasty relish, use red capsicum and omit the ground cloves (which darkens the pickle).

Combine zucchini, onion, capsicum and celery in a large non-reactive bowl.  Sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water; let stand for 1 hour.  Drain vegetables in a sieve, pressing out excess moisture.

Combine sugar, vinegar, celery seed, mustard seed, dry mustard and cloves in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan.  Bring to a boil over high heat; add vegetables.  Return to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until mixture is thickened.  Be careful to gently boil or simmer because if you boil it too hard then the mixture goes quite dark and caramelised.

Whilst mixture is boiling prepare jars in a canner.  When ready, remove hot jars and ladle relish into jars to within 1 cm of the rim.  Process 10 minutes for 250ml jars and 15 minutes for 500ml jars.