Recently, I harvested some of my home-grown cucumbers, and then I set about making a batch of Refrigerator Pickles”, BUT after I began to slice them, using my mandolin slicer (something I don’t use very often), I discovered (much to my dismay) that I had diced — instead of sliced — most of the first cucumber!
With a pile of DICED cucumbers sitting in a pile underneath my mandolin SLICER, I had somewhat of a dilemma on my hands… er… counter:
Do I just throw away the diced cucumbers OR do I try to salvage them?
Well… I decided on the latter option since I don’t like wasting anything, especially something I grew myself, and then, moments later, the solution to this dilemma popped into my head:
I can make PICKLE RELISH with ’em
since pickle relish is just diced cucumbers with a few other things thrown into the mix!
At that point, I started searching for a SWEET pickle relish recipe (primarily because I’ve never really liked the alternative: dill), which proved to be more difficult than I had expected. I ended up using (adapting) a recipe from “The Essential Amish Kitchen” by Lovina Eicher, and by “adapting”, I meant that I had to do some “maths” to figure out more appropriate measurements for just little ol’ me since Lovina’s original recipe called for 4 quarts of cucumbers — MORE cucumbers than I had harvested!
So, yeah… Once I did the figurin’, here’s my adapted list of ingredients for PICKLE RELISH:
- 2 cups of diced cucumbers
- 1/4 cup onions
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 6 Tablespoons vinegar
- 12 Tablespoons (3/4 cup) sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon celery seed
- 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
After the inadvertent dicing (and the decision to make pickle relish), I finished dicing the rest of my harvested cucumbers, and then I combined the cucumbers, onions, and salt. I let this mixture stand for 3 hours and then drained it (though, if I remember correctly, there wasn’t much to drain).
While I was waiting those three hours, I combined (but did not boil) the water, vinegar, and sugar, and then I added the celery seed, mustard, and turmeric. At the end of the 3 hours, I added the liquid mixture to the drained cucumber mixture and then placed it into the refrigerator, where it did, indeed, “keep well” as Lovina said it would.
When I’d originally decided to make the PICKLE RELISH, I had thought about putting it on grilled brats or burgers, but that didn’t happen. I ended up eating it straight out of the fridge, one spoonful at a time! It didn’t disappoint, either!! My homemade pickle relish was DELICIOUS — so much so that I’m going to make it again, though probably not with any of my home-grown cucumbers until next year. (I’ll just use store-bought cucumbers until I’m able to harvest my own cucumbers.) In any case, I foresee making LOTS of batches of homemade PICKLE RELISH!