Homemade Tomato Relish

Growing up we always had a large jar of my Pa's tomato relish in the fridge. I loved it. I can still taste it. My Pa had a large vegetable garden, which was his pride and joy, and visiting my grandparents down the south coast always meant lots of garden fresh fruit and vegetables, and fresh fish my Pa had caught in the local waters.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I really missed all those tastes and smells of home. Even though I hadn't had a jar of Pa's relish for some years, I felt particularly homesick when I thought about that relish in my Mum's fridge. I wasn't working for the first few months after we arrived, so I cooked. I didn't have my Pa's recipe, but I did have a recipe from Stephanie Alexander - a good Australian cook, so I felt this would help me feel less homesick. Of course, its not quite the same when you have to buy the 5 kg of tomato's needed to make tomato relish as you live in an apartment with no vegetable garden to pick them from, and it can make the relish a rather expensive venture. Nonetheless, I set out making relish.

My first few attempts at the relish always resulted in what we called my "smoky tomato relish". In other words, I burned it. But it wasn't ruined, just unique. It was quite different from my Pa's but we loved it all the same. In my more recent attempts, my husband suggested turning the temperature down during the 3 hour cooking time, to a "gentle boil" and viola, we avoided the "smoky" effect. This time we also decided to cut down on the sugar a little, not that my children objected to the overly sweet flavor of our last batch.

Nathan wanted to give some little jars to a couple of his work colleagues, and my Mum and sister are eager recipients too. So with a few scarps of material I had purchased, I decided to pretty-up the jars a little, so they were more like gifts. I hope everyone enjoys their homemade tomato relish.

For those who are looking for a tomato relish recipe, this is Stephanie Alexander's (with a few of our tweaks) from The Cook's Companion:

Kathy's Tomato Relish (Makes 3 litres)
1 tablespoon cloves
2 tablespoons whole allspice
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
5kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
30g salt
600ml wine vinegar
1 kg sugar*

*We reduced the sugar by half in our last recipe (though we also only had 3.5kg of tomatoes and 500ml of red wine vinegar).

Tie cloves, allspice and peppercorns in a square of muslin. Put all ingredients except the sugar, into a large non-reactive stockpot. Bring to the boil and boil steadily for 1 hour, stirring from time to time. Add sugar and continue to boil, stirring every 20 minutes, for a further 2 hours. Remove muslin bag, pressing it well over the pot before discarding it. Pass relish through the coarse disc of a food mill^ and using a funnel, bottle at once in hot, dry sterilized bottles. Cap and allow to cool before storing.

^We don't pass the relish through a food mill, as we tend to like the lumpy texture of the relish as is.