Sweet Pickle Relish

 If you are new to the world of canning this is a great starter project. It is easy, uses only a few ingredients and super yummy!

There are a few things you will need to make this process easier. Stainless steel bowls, measuring cups, knife, chopper, and a food mill. Luckily my sis-in-law had one that I could borrow. The food mill makes chopping the cucumbers much easier. It preserves the juices and texture of the cucumber.

The consistency your cucumbers should be

Yield about 8 half pints

• 4 cups chopped cucumbers (about 4 medium)

• 2 cups chopped onions (about 2 medium)

• 1 cup chopped sweet green pepper (about 1 medium)

• 1 cup chopped sweet red pepper (about 1 medium)

• 1/4 cup canning salt

• 3 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon celery seed

• 1 tablespoon mustard seed

• 2 cups cider vinegar

         

Combine chopped cucumbers, onions, green and red peppers in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. 

Then start to prepare your jars. After washing them thoroughly with hot soapy water, put in water bath canner and bring to a boil to sterilize. Leave them in covered canner till ready to use. Or you can use another separate pot to boil the jars and the lids in, I found this method easier. If you are so blessed to have a dishwasher, you can put them in the dishwasher as well. You need them hot when you put the relish in them. Never put hot liquid in a cold jar. 

While you are waiting the 2 hrs for your ingredients to soak, you can prepare your second batch by chopping up more vegetables. This way you keep the ball rolling and there is no down time. 

Once the two hours is up:

• Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. 

• Combine sugar, spices and vinegar in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil. 

• Add drained vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. 

• Remove sterilized jars from the water bath canner and place on counter

• Bring that water back to a boil, you can add a little bit of vinegar to the water in your water bath canner to keep the mineral deposits off the jars. 

• Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. 

A batch will typically be 8 half-pints. My 2nd and 3rd batch I was able to get 9 jars. It just depends on how accurately you measure out your ingredients. 

• Remove air bubbles by tapping side of jar or using a knife along the inside of the jar
• Wipe off rim of the jars with a damp paper towel to ensure a tight seal
• Adjust two-piece caps securely, don't tighten the rings too tight, you need the air in the jars to be able to escape. 
• Process 10 minutes in a boiling water-canner. 

After the 10 minutes of processing:

• Turn off the range
• Using a jar lifter, remove the jars from the canner and place on a kitchen towel
• When you hear a popping sound, that is the jars sealing. If they don't seal you can add the relish in with the next batch recook and try to process again, or you can put that jar in the fridge and eat in the near future. 

• Leave the jars to cool 
• You will need to wash off the jars after they are completely cool. Mineral deposits from your water can leave a film on your jars making them look cloudy. 

"We are indeed much more than what we

eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help 

us to be much more than what we are."

Adelle Davis

Fried GF Pickles

Fried pickles, oh yes I did it. :) Some think gross, others its pure heavenly bliss in your mouth. Whatever your opinion is on them, these were simply amazing. I couldn't make them fast enough! The first couple tries I just couldn't get it right, I either burnt them or they weren't done. So third times the charm. :)

By now, you can probably assume that all of my meals are GF. Regardless of what the title is. I must say I am getting pretty good about finding substitute recipes for all those wheat filled recipes. 

The first attempt was with pickle spears. That didn't work at all. So I sliced up large pickles super thin which seemed to do the trick. 

First step. Get a deep pan/skillet put enough oil in them so the pickle slices can float. I used about two cups of coconut oil. Adjust depending on what kind of pan you are using. 

Get one bowl for your eggs, water, and lemon juice, mix really well. Then another bowl for your crumbs, spices and flour mix well. 

One Egg

3 TBSP Water

1 TBSP Lemon Juice (optional)

1 Cup Flour

1/2 Cup GF Bread Crumbs

Sprinkle in Red Pepper Flakes or any other seasoning you would like to add to them. 

We had a huge jar of the large whole pickles.  Slice two pickles super thin then toss them in the egg mix bowl. I just let them sit there while I was heating the oil. Once the oil is up to temperature you can start frying them. (My oil was a little over 300'F) . Do the slices one at a time or they will stick to each other in the flower mix. Then drop them in the oil, making sure they aren't sticking to each other. I had about 7 in the pan at a time. Once those were done, I would add more. They will get a golden brown and a little puffy. 

Use a slotted spatula to fish them out of the oil and put them on a paper towel to drip dry. Then enjoy! 

You could easily use pickles that are already sliced in a jar, dill, sweet, whatever sounds good to you. We just used what we had on hand. :) 

Now some of you may be thinking, FRIED! PICKLES! UNHEALTHY! AHHH!  Well, yes they are fried and pickles have lots of salt and No I wouldn't recommend eating them daily, but hey, who says you can't have a fried pickle every now and again? By using coconut oil and GF ingredients it cuts down on the fatty unhealthy quality that you would find at the fair. So no, I am not fixing a decadent salad here, I am simply enjoying some homemade Gluten Free fried pickles :)