I thought I was so smart. I wasn’t going to be fooled by the temptress that is a zucchini plant. I remember the pleading calls of zucchini growers from last year. “What can you do with excess zucchinis??????????” In Western Australia, you cannot give them away in summer.
I went to visit my neighbour, Renate, last week to strip her cumquat tree and we got chatting. Before I knew it, and when my defences were down, she asked, ‘Would you like some zucchini?” “Just one”, I knowingly replied, visualising a kitchen full of the monsters.
Renate casually went out to her garden and picked ONE zucchini.
She out-smarted me!!. The bloody thing was huge – 1.5 kg in fact. Damn it!! I was done for.
I went home with my bowl of cumquats and the bloody zucchini. What was I to do with it?
I remember my mate, Col, made a great zucchini relish last year but his recipe was in Perth and I was in Bridgetown so I searched my cook books on Eat Your Books. Nothing caught my fancy. I then searched the net and decided upon this recipe. The site is bestrecipes.com.au. It is not very user-friendly so I have re-typed it.
We had some today and it tasted great so if you get lumbered with zucchinis this summer, give it a bash. You won’t be sorry. I had to double the recipe with my monster. It made 11 smallish jars.
Ingredients:
- 700g zucchini, finely diced
- 1 red capsicum, finely diced
- 1 cup corn kernels
- 1 onion, diced
- 1½ cups white vinegar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 tbs* turmeric
- 1 tbs* mustard powder
- 1 tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp curry powder
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tbs* vegetable oil
- 1 tbs* salt
- 2 tbs* cornflour
- 1 tbs* water
*These are 20 mil tablespoons
- Combine all the ingredients in a pot and simmer for 1 hour, stirring often.
- Combine cornflour and water, stir into relish and simmer for a further 5 minutes.
- Transfer hot relish to sterilised jars and seal.
Instead of using the cornflour, I used the equivalent amount of Clearjel. Clearjel does not thicken until it cools and is stable under high temperatures. Because of this, you can thicken your relish and then process the jars in boiling water – which is what I did. I processed them for 10 minutes.
Passion Fruit Garden 
Hi can u please tell me what is CLEARJEL and where to buy , thanks Deid
Hi Deid
Clear Jel is modified corn starch. It is not available in Australia. I bought mine from Barry Farm (via Amazon). Here is the link http://www.amazon.com/Barry-Farm-Clear-Jel-lb/dp/B00015UC4S/ref=sr_1_2?rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1440423153&sr=8-2&keywords=clearjel
Be warned, the postage cost more than the Clear Jel. You can also get instant Clear Jel which is pretty cool too. Hope this helps.
This sounds delicious, Glenda. I’ve no room for zucchini nor cucumbers so either I rely upon the kindness of strangers or I get mine from the farmers markets. This season, I’ll be sure to get enough zucchini to make your relish. It’s got just enough heat and the corn would give it a nice “pop” of flavor. I bet it’s tasty!
Hi John. It is very tasty, great with a strong cheddar cheese.
I have developed an answer to the zucchini glut – I grow only 2 green and 2 yellow plants each summer – that way I can almost always say No to my neighbors’ offerings – at in the rare chance my plants are not enough, I can always say Yes. It works well and gives me a little more garden space for other plants.
Hi Doc, The trouble in Western Australia is they sell little seedlings in punnets of 8 and I couldn’t possibly throw out 6 baby plants. Best to stay clear.
Looks good. I always thought I’d try Sally Wise’s recipe from ‘A Year In a Bottle’ if I ever had an overload of zucchinis. Still waiting for that overload. I’ve heard rave reviews about her Zucchini Pickles p 172 in the book. I just had a look though and she uses two and a quarter cups sugar to one kilo of zuch. Keeping in mind the ratios, your sugar content is overall much less. Yours sounds better to me. Ps. Love your labelling!
Thanks Mariana. I just checked out Sally’s recipe. Maybe next year. You can have too much relish:)