Garlic Pickle Day!

Hello Friends,
Well, there won't be any vampires stopping by at the People & Cats Republic tonight! If any tall, fanged, black cloaked individuals are thinking of flying by for a sneaky chomp of neck, they are going to find themselves well & truly repelled. Oh yes! You see, we have grown rather a lot of this......

........ & with the help of this.........

I've turned some of it into Garlic Pickle. It's an interesting preserve, this one. It's not the pickled whole cloves of garlic which appear in delis, along with the olives & sundried tomatoes. It's a sticky, quite spicy, very pungent preserve, almost jam-like in consistency. It's not difficult to make - maybe easier if you have some experience with preserves, as it'd be easy to overcook  (garlic toffee, anyone?). The worst part is peeling 250g of individual garlic cloves, because that's quite a lot.

Put some good music on & just crack on with it. (Don't listen to the latest on the Tory leadership bunfight like I did........perfectly horrid way to spend more than a nano-second of my time but had got too garlicky to tackle changing the station). No need to chop the peeled cloves by hand. They can be speedily zizzed up in a gizmo. Then everything just goes into a large pan. It's quite a flavoursome mix of ingredients - mustard seed, fenugreek, lemon juice, cayenne, cumin seed, turmeric, as well as a bit of salt, some oil & sugar - & it just needs a fast simmer until thick & ready for bottling.

It even LOOKS stinky, doesn't it? Well, I can tell you that this pan of gloop made 5 small jars of pickle, which are currently sealed, labelled & cooling on top of the freezer...........

......but they won't be for long. Emma Macdonald, the author of this recipe book, suggests that it is nice used very thinly as a savoury spread on hot toast (a bit like 'Marmite'). I've tried that, & it's very nice.......................as long as you are not thinking of actually exhaling anywhere within a 20 mile-radius of any other life-form for the next 2 months. Yes, this stuff could fell an ox. It could fell a field of oxen. It could probably fell the field too. The Bigger Hairier Half of the Relationship, however (could you see where this was going?), is seriously in love with this stuff & will eat it on anything & everything, as well as straight out of the jar on a spoon! There may JUST be some of this batch left by the end of July (but only because I've told him that peeling all the garlic took me AGES & he's to make it last!). I'll be astounded if there is anything left by the end of August.
As for my trusty furred helper, Albert Whiskers, he's made himself scarce today. Suspect the fumes from the Evil Pan were making his fur & whiskers curl, but he'll be back when his cavernous tummy starts rumbling!
Cheers,
C x