Preserving the Harvest: Green and Red Pepper Relish

Now that I'm becoming so adept at canning and preserving, I'm starting to build up a little pantry of food stuffs. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to look at all those jars lined up, ready to eat. It makes me think about my great-grandmothers and how they must have felt making sure there were plenty of provisions for their families over the winter. Of course, I'm doing small batch preserving, so the Strawberry Jam is gone, the Red Onion Relish is almost a memory as are the pickled green beans and it's still summer. Maybe there was more to keeping the preserves in the basement than food safety. It's so easy to reach into the cupboard in the sunny kitchen and open another jar of jam. But you really have to want that jam to brave the dark, creepy cold room where nobody but Granny enters unafraid, thereby ensuring that the stock of provisions lasts through the winter.

The strawberries are long gone this season, but I can still fulfill the requests to make more onion relish and pickles, so I think I might double the recipe this time. I could see these little jars making great gifts too. When my friend Alex saw the fruits of my labour, she told me that she always takes homemade jams and chutneys to friends when she visits overseas. As she said, "what can you possibly buy for someone who lives in Paris?" Good question.

I'll certainly be giving away some jars of this relish. It was delicious on our favourite chickpea burgers and you could serve it with grilled chicken or tofu as well as adding it to sandwiches. The recipe made seven and a half cups, rather than the four that the recipe indicated. I don't think my peppers were particularly large, but I was happy to have the extra three jars in any event. This relish was very easy to make. The only effort required is the chopping of the vegetables, which really didn't take that long. If you are planning to make this recipe and you are new to preserving, check out my primer Preserving the Harvest: the Procedure before starting.

Green and Red Pepper Relish

4 sweet green peppers, chopped

4 sweet red peppers, chopped

4 medium onions, finely chopped

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp pickling salt

1.Combine peppers, onions and 1/4 cup boiling water in a large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. a boil. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

2.Drain vegetables and return to saucepan. Stir in 1/3 cup each vinegar and water. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat; simmer or 5 minutes.

3.Drain vegetables and return to saucepan. Heat remaining 2/3 cup vinegar, sugar and salt in microwave or in a pot on the stove, until sugar is dissolved. Add to vegetables and return mixture to a boil. Boil gently, uncovered, for25 minutes or until liquid is reduced and vegetables are tender-crisp.

4.Remove hot jars from canner and ladle relish into jars to within 1/2" of rim. Process 10 minutes for half pint (250 ml) jars and 15 minutes for pin (500 ml).