I had a craving recently for an Ikea hotdog with a big serve of their cucumber relish on top. Instead, I decided to make a similar relish myself! It’s thick, sticky and a bit naughty. Perfect for BBQs, hotdogs, sausages, burgers, cheese and cold plates. There’s a bit of fine chopping needed, but the cooking is fast and easy. This recipe made 6 jars with a total volume of about 1500ml.
Store in a dark cool place until use, for up to 6 months. Once opened, keep in the fridge.
| 12 large cucumbers | 1 TBS tumeric powder |
| 1 red pepper | 1/2 TSP grated ginger or ginger powder |
| 1 medium onion | 1 TSP celery seeds (optional) |
| 500ml apple vinegar | Pinch of chili powder or chili flakes (optional) |
| 400g sugar | 2 TBS cornflour or katakuriko |
| 1 TSP yellow mustard seeds | 2 TBS salt |
- First get your jars ready. Clean in hot soapy water and rinse well. Heat your oven to 160℃, place your jars on a rack and heat in the oven for at least 10 minutes. Wash the lids in hot soapy water, rinse well and leave to air dry
- Wash the cucumbers and pepper. Remove the ends of the cucumbers and slice each in half lengthways. Remove the seeds with a small spoon and discard. With a very sharp knife, slice the cucumbers lengthways into approximately 5mm wide stips. Gather all the strips together and dice to about 5mm.
- Cut the top and bottom of the pepper off. Remove the seeds and white part, cut the pepper to open it up to one long piece. Cut strips about 3 to 5mm wide, gather together and dice to about 3 to 5mm dice.
- Peel the onion, cut in half and dice very finely to about a 3mm dice.
- Put all of the diced vegetables into a colander or sieve, sprinkle the salt over and leave for at least 2 hours. This draws out water from the veg and will result in crunchy veg in the final pickle. Rinse well with water and allow to drip dry for at least 30 minutes.
- In a large pot, add the vinegar, sugar, ginger, mustard seeds, celery seeds and chili. Gently heat to dissolve the sugar.
- Mix the cornflour or katakuriko and tumeric with a little water to make a loose paste.
- Add the vegetables to the pot and gently cook for 5 minutes.
- While stirring, start adding the cornflour/katakuriko paste until it starts to thicken. You may not need all the thickener so add bit by bit.
- Remove the hot jars from the oven, carefully fill each one with the relish and clean the rim of the jar with a clean cloth. Put the lids on immediately.
