We have bulk chilis at this peak of the chili season. I’m not a huge fan of preserving – I’m lucky enough to live in a climate where if we eat seasonally, we can eat fresh all year round. Freezing takes lots of electricity, canning takes lots of work, and most preserves have more sugar or salt than I really need. But of course there are exceptions!
I’m not a big preserve maker, nor do I freeze vegetables. I sun-dry tomatoes and make passata if I have enough, but I am lucky enough to live in a climate where, if I plant sequentially and we eat seasonally, we can eat fresh all year. So preserves tend to just sit on the shelf looking decorative. So if I make preserves, it’s not to preserve things but because the…
You can eat a few young mustard leaves in salads and stir fries, but most of the harvest is in the seeds, and one mustard plant, one of those tiny little seeds, will grow over a metre tall, dominate most of a square metre of space, and yield enough mustard seed to keep us going all year.
I am picking lots of chilis, but it is too early yet for enough lemons to make Chili Jam, so it’s chili pickling time.
I’ve made this chutney in bulk (scaled up to 8 cups of tamarillo flesh) with roast lamb for a wedding feast. But the sweetness and acidity go really really well with kangaroo fillet, cooked on a barbeque or pan fried.
In the realm of preserves as condiments, preserved lemons are top of the list.
This recipe works for lemon or lime cordial, but limes have a shorter season when fresh ones are available.