I have spent a lot of time preserving things lately. Along with bottling tomatoes, which will eventually find their way into soups, curries, and pasta sauces, I have been making chutneys, pickles and jams. Some of these will just naturally get eaten – tomato sauce (ketchup) for instance just seems to vanish (I have noticed Mr 3 drinking it on occasion). With some of the pickles though I may have to work a bit harder to ensure they are used up. But what are the best things to make to ensure they are eaten? These are my top 5:
Burgers
There are very few savoury condiments or preserves that don’t work well with a burger in my opinion. From the tomato sauce you smother on top to the Bread and Butter Cucumbers you put inside, via the beetroot, which is an essential part of any Aussie Burger, to the mustard which gives beef burgers in particular a lift. Condiments are made for burgers and burgers are the perfect vehicle for condiments.
Rice
Whether it be fresh chutneys or raita, or sweeter more vinegary preserves with chilli, rice makes a great vehicle for all manner of condiments. Many Indian meals are based around a serve of rice accompanied by all manner of fresh and preserved chutneys and pickles.
Sausages
Tomato sauce is the most common combination with sausages but I also like all kinds of chutneys and mustards. In fact most vinegary sauces work really, really well with a sausage.
Sweeter condiments like chilli jam and plum sauce can also be perfect with stronger sausages.
My personal favourites include: chicken sausages with beetroot chutney, beef sausages with mustard, and veggie sausages with tomato and chilli jam.
Whether you eat your sausage in bread (in true Sausage sizzle style), with potatoes in some form or in a stew there is usually a condiment to suit.
Cheese
I love cheese and Bread and Butter Cucumbers. I love cheese and chilli jam. I love cheese with lime pickle (thanks Nina). I love cheese and plum or quince paste. There’s something about the tang of a sweet, salty, vinegary pickle against the fat of cheese that really really works.
Bread
Cheese and pickle sandwich, strass and sauce (who else had that at least twice a week in their school lunchbox?), ham and mustard, salad including pickled beetroot, beef and horseradish, chicken and pesto, the sandwich possibilities go on and on. And that’s before you even start thinking about toast with jam.
I must make my own tomato sauce some time. My kids need a condiment every time they have a fritter/pancake. Tonight they had the last of the spaghetti squash that i whipped into a fritter and I persuaded them to have it with sweet chilli sauce. Do you make a plum paste? I’d be interested in a recipe cos I get way too many plums over summer and run out of ideas for them.
I have made plum paste before. I’m pretty sure I used this recipe: http://www.abc.net.au/local/recipes/2003/01/29/772313.htm
We often forget to use our pickles and chutneys – must try harder as I love them.
I think we definitely need to have a burger night here!weve got beetroot, bread and butter pickles, tomato sauce and sourdough bread. Sounds perfect to me.
Having made some green tomato & mustard pickle on the weekend, I think I have more than enough varieties of preserves to see me (and anyone who will take them off my hands) through for some time to come!
I haven’t tried making tomato sauce (only passata). Maybe next year!
I don’t know about you, Liz, but I’m running out of jars for preserving – I plead with colleagues to bring theirs in and, apart from one, no-one seems bothered. I do reward the ‘one’ with a sampling of everything I make and she is delighted with that. She’s a young, trendy thing and really appreciates the home-made stuff. The others like them too but can’t be bothered rinsing out a jar instead of throwing it in the recycling. Their loss, I say!
Once I master my pressure canner (it sits in pristine condition on top of the wardrobe), I’ll need to invest in proper preserving jars anyway.
Definitely their loss!!!! I too have a problem with jars – I was contemplating actually buying some recently but it felt too ridiculous so I didn’t. I’m thinking I’ll put a notice in the school newsletter and see if that produces any. As for pressure canning, like pressure cooking I’m too scared to try it – but then I can be a little pathetic abut these things at times…
This is a great list, Liz. I really like these ideas for using up abundant items that have been preserved. I hope that this year I will have enough of my preserves that I have to look for uses. So far, the pickles (cucumber) and tomato salsa have been so popular around my house that they are gone before I can blink. The jams take a little longer, but I have many friends who request those.
Fabulous that your family appreciate them so much.
I just have a question…Can I come eat at your house all the time? Everything you make just looks and sounds absolutely delicious!
Sure, as long as you can cope with the jet lag, we have an extra chair.
I like the idea of making homemade tomato sauce, but I don’t think I would ever have enough home-grown tomatoes to make it viable. What weight of tomatoes would you need to make a bottle of sauce like the one in your photo? And once made, how long does the sauce keep? (I mean theoretically, subject to the depredations of various children…)
My recipe is for 5kg and it makes two litres. That bottle is 750ml so just under 2kg of tomatoes would do it. The sauce keeps in the cupboard for about a year – or at least that’s the longest I’ve managed to keep it. I keep it in the fridge once I’ve opened the bottle.
My favorite is cheese. I could put just about any preserve on some cheese and eat it. Crackers optional.
The chilli jam with veggie sausages idea is good – maybe in a sandwich… with some cheese? I like the idea of using rice with preserves too!
Perhaps if the rice was in the sausage and we all the whole thing a Burger then it would cover the whole lot in one easy package.
Glad to hear the chillies are doing well in Melbourne too. Your chookies are gorgeous!
Lovely to hear from you!
Pingback: Home-made Burgers |