I have had a crazy thought for awhile now to try canning. I started asking my friends and family members and most had tried it. The one thing that everyone seemed to agree on for me is that I am not at the point in my life where I could be trusted with a pressure cooker. Seriously, a few people told me that they would worry about me if I attempted this - what with the distractions of three kids and a dog and my absent minded brain lately. I believe my Aunt Kathy told me I could blow the house up. She's probably right.
However, everyone seemed to think I could be trusted with a pot of boiling water...and so I decided to give canning a whirl with the water bath method. I got inspired to actually do this when I went to my Aunt Kathy's house (the kids prefer to call it a farm). She has a beautiful garden growing and invited us over to grab some jumbo zucchini. She had been busy at work in her kitchen and there were jars of stewed tomatoes and everything under the sun you could imagine canned. She gave me a taste of something that looked like pickle relish only it wasn't...it was so much better than any pickle relish I had ever tasted. It was my Grandma's Zucchini Relish. This is a must for any hamburger or hot dog (nitrate free of course). I could even just sit with a spoon and eat it out of the jar-it was that good!
Granny Clauser's Zucchini Relish
INGREDIENTS:
10 cups shredded Zucchini
4 onions shredded/chopped finely
2 green bell peppers chopped finely
5 tsp salt
2 jalapenos finely diced
3 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups vinegar
2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp turmerick
1 tsp corn startch
(Granny's recipe says to add 4 hot peppers, I only had two and thought it was just the right amount. You can also omit hot peppers altogether and increase sugar to 4 cups.)
What started as a huge pile of zucchinis ended up as a huge container of shredded zucchini that I ran through the food processor. Next I did the same thing with onions and green peppers until they were chopped super fine. Now this seems crazy to me, but I don't make the rules so I just went with it - you mix the zucchini, onion and bell pepper/peppers with the 5tsp of salt and let it stand overnight. The next day, rinse the mixture in cold water and drain. (I have to warn you here, my kids woke up the next morning wondering what the disgusting smell was. Well children, that would be four shredded onions sitting on my counter overnight blessing you with their sweet aroma.)
In a very large pot put in the sugar and vinegar and zucchini mixture. Next add in the rest of the seasonings/ingredients. Heat and boil for 30 minutes. Next step is to add the mixture to sterilized hot jars and seal. I was able to fill 7 half pint jars. Now that is where Granny's recipe ends, but I was reading in a Ball canning book and they had a different relish recipe that required 15 minutes in a water bath. I went ahead and did this because a) I had not tried the water bath method before and wanted to and b) I didn't realize how much everyone would love this recipe and how quickly we would go through the jars. I envisioned having several jars left behind in the cupboard for months on end. This was not the case!
The water bath method is so simple - I am not sure why I was intimidated by it. This is my dummy version: Get a really large pot and fill with water. Add your filled and sealed cans to the water and bring to a boil and continue to boil for the necessary amount of time. I did purchase a canning kit from Walmart that had everything you would need for removing the cans from hot water and for when you sterilize the jars like the utensil set shown below. Other than jars that is all you need to make this recipe.
This inspired me to try canning other things which I will also share, like diced tomatoes, pizza sauce, bbq sauce, spiced pears!!!
Thanks Aunt Kathy for the zucchini and inspiration and Grandma Clauser for the oooohhh so YUMMY recipe!
