Corn Relish

Corn. The Wonder Fruit. What can't it do, really. We're big fans of corn in our house, and although that radioactive yellow goo they sell in jars in the supermarket under the name of corn relish does have a special place in our hearts, I thought I'd have a go at a slightly more wholesome variety.

Once again, unfortunately, I did not grow any of the veg I used in this relish. We make a monthly trip into the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, and this month one of the stall holders had corn for $1.20 an ear - what was I supposed to do!?

The photo above is of Michael using my mum's very nifty corn removal tool, me having silly girly hands and all. It's basically a set of metal jaws with handles, that strip the kernels off the cob. However, as you can see to the left, we had a bit of trouble getting it to take the whole kernel off, and wound up having to remove the remainder of each kernel with a knife. Oh well, now we know for next time!

Once again, the fiddliest part of this relish was all the chopping veg - aside from the corn, there was celery and two colours of capsicum to dice, plus onion. Once that was done, yet another easy peasy relish. (I should apologise but I can't locate the source of this recipe - I scrawled it on the back of an envelope off the internet, but now I can't find it. I will continue to search and update when I find it though).

1. I first boiled vinegar, salt and sugar in a large saucepan, until the sugar dissolved and the mixture was boiling.

2. In went the vegetables, and spices, and I reduced the heat and simmered the relish for around 10 minutes or so, until the veg got soft and the liquid absorbed. Again, due to my paranoia about sticking things to saucepans, I stirred it more or less constantly during this time.

3. Into my brand new spiffy jars, and voila!! The colour of this relish is incredible, and as it sits in the fridge the flavour is intensifying.

Tomato Relish

Again, a disclaimer. I did not grow these tomatoes, but they had ripe tomatoes for $1.50 a kilo at the Vic on the weekend, and being as my whole family is massive fans of the old tomato relish, I thought bugger it, why not.

So, courtesy of my good friends ABC Tasmania, here we go...

1. Chop tomatoes, apples and onion into small bits. I got quite carried away and diced them right up fine. Two kilos of tomatoes will take longer than you imagine to chop.

2. Into a big saucepan goes the tomatoes, apples, onion and garlic along with the vinegar, sugar and spices.

3. Bring it to the boil, and stir it enough to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. In my case, since I'm quite well known for the variety of things I can stick to the bottom of a saucepan, I stirred it until it boiled.

4. The mixture then needs to boil for around one and a half hours, during which time I perched on my barstool in front of the stove and multitasked - periodically stirring the relish, as well as watching the league on the tellly, and peeling the onions for the pickled onions.

5. I then mixed the cornflour into a bit more vinegar and added that to the pan, leaving nothing left to do but to stir until thickened, then bottle.

This relish is ready to eat straight away, and has been a hit with the entire relish-loving family. I'm just looking forward now to when I can use my own tomatoes to make it :)