Recipe for Mustard Pickle

Recipe for Mild Mustard Pickle

Contains no colourants, preservatives or anything other than seasonal vegetables and other rustic ingredients. Loved by everybody in the family and by some others too. Do not be discouraged by the colour, it's great with cheese, cold and hot meats and even on its own with fresh crispy bread!
Usually prepared in late September or early October, rarely lasts beyond Christmas in my family!
There is nothing similar available commercially.

Some preparation is required :-

(I) Collect some empty jam-jars, or similar, through the year.
Thoroughly clean the jars and tops, rinse and dry in a warm oven.
The amounts below will fill about eight 454g (1lb) jars

(ii) Ingredients with approx. quantities (the exact amounts are not critical as no batch is exactly the same as the last!) :-
Colmans Mustard Powder 50g (two heaped table spoons)
Corn Flower 50g
Sugar 25g (one heaped table spoon)
Salt 25g
Ordinary Malt Vinegar 1.14 litres (2.3 pints)
Shallots, or small pickling onions, 700g
Cauliflower 700g
Runner beans 700g
Marrow 700g (Courgette works too!)

(iii) Prepare the veg. :-
‘Top and tail’ the Onions and peel off the outer skins
Cut off any stringy sides of the Runner Beans and slice diagonally
Peel off the Marrow skin, cut into half and spoon out the seeds. Chop the remaining flesh into small cubes of about 2-3cm
Remove the outer leaves of the Cauliflower, and chop the remainder into small intact fleurettes
Place the  prepared veg. in a suitably sized bowl and add salt, turning over several times to ensure a uniform coating.
Cover the bowl and stand overnight (previous experience indicates that 4-6 hours is adequate)
After this time, decant the brine from the bowl, place the veg. in a colander and rinse briefly under running tap water. Tip out the veg. onto a clean cloth and dab gently to remove excess water.

(iv) Prepare a thin slurry by thoroughly mixing the Mustard, Corn Flower  and Sugar with about 50 to 100ml of the Vinegar, in a  jug.

(v) Put the prepared veg. in a saucepan, add the remainder of the Vinegar and place on an oven hob. Gradually bring to the boil. Once simmering, add the Mustard slurry and gently mix.
Allow to boil gently for 20 minutes and turn off the heat.
Do not boil too vigorously, or for longer than specified, as this tends to break-up the vegetables.

(vi) Allow to cool, then ladle into the jars via a ‘jam’ funnel, or similar.
Gently press the top of each jar, to ensure that the contents are totally immersed in the liquor. If not, add small portions of Vinegar to achieve this. Place the tops on the jars.

The Mustard Pickle is then ready for consumption, but is better after a couple of days maturation!