Thursday, August 4, 2011

Old-fashioned Soul Food Chow-Chow Relish

By Kathy Smith


This particular chow chow recipe is truly a favorite for a lot of Southerners. It's a good condiment on also good with hamburgers, sausages and hot dogs. Chow-chow is a little bit spicy vegetable relish which contains mustard.

It is usually made with green tomatoes, cabbage, mustard seed, onions, hot peppers, sweet peppers, and vinegar. Other optional ingredients include cucumbers, celery, carrots, beans, corn and also cauliflower. However, the ingredients are by no means "strict" and nearly any leftover fresh vegetables could be used including radishes and even red tomatoes in a pinch.

The term "relish" hails from the term "reles" that means "something remaining" in ancient French, which surely agrees with this dish. Regardless of where chow chow came from, one particular point is undoubtedly for absoluterly certain: it really has been really enjoyed in the Southern U.S. for well over 200 years.


The following chow chow meal can make half dozen pints. List of ingredients:


9 pounds of green tomatoes
six lbs . white or yellow onions, peeled and coarsely chopped
one cup of salt
six cups of water
four cups of white wine vinegar
4 tbsps . of pickling herbs
two 1/2 lbs white sugar
2 1/2 lbs light brown sugar
1/2 cup of corn starch
two teaspoons of dry mustard
one tsp of turmeric
1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely diced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely minced


Directions:

Put your green tomatoes & onions in the largest non-reactive bowl you can find. 9 cups of tomatoes is a lot of tomatoes and the acid in the tomatoes might have an unfavorable reaction to some bowls. Add 4 cups of water and all of the salt. Allow the tomato, water and salt mixture to sit over night (eight hours, even though a dozen hours is best), covered up within the fridge.

Strain well in a colander and after that set the tomatoes and onions into a hefty pan together with white vinegar, two cups of water and pickling spice.

Bring all of this to a boil above high temperature then minimize the high temperature to low and simmer for a half-hour. Pour in all the white and brown sugar and let to simmer for another half-hour.

In another bowl, stir the cornstarch, mustard and tumeric and sprinkle into the pot. Add in the diced red bell pepper and garlic cloves and simmer for an additional 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until thick. Let cool to room temperature and then store the relish in air tight containers up to six months in the fridge.




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