Green Tomato Relish & The Gift of Southern Cooking

This delicious, tangy Green Tomato Relish is made of green tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and spices. It's perfect with sandwiches, potatoes and dinner entrees. I found this recipe in one of my favorite Southern Cookbooks....... The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis  & Scott Peacock.  

Our tomato plants are just about coming to an end in our garden. The heat is so bad that the plants are starting to dry out and burn up, don't you just love the Texas Heat UGH!! So far we have gotten a great crop of tomatoes this year and they are still producing like crazy.

We have used most to make homemade salsa and have been eating are way through the rest but, there is no way we can ripen and eat all of them. I will keep some of the ripened ones and get those canned or frozen to use at a later time. Can you believe I am already thinking about homemade Christmas Gifts.

My favorite gifts to give are the ones from my kitchen, plus I wanted to get a jump on some canning. I love Green Tomato Relish, which also goes by the name of Chow Chow in some area's.  Green Tomato relish is one of my favorite things to get along side a fried catfish dinner. I could just sit and eat that relish all by itself, it's that good.

This relish also pairs well with with sausages, pork, ham, or serve it with hot dogs or burgers. I thought it would be neat to try and make it myself. I saw a recipe in one of my new favorite cookbooks. "The Gift of Southern Cooking" By Edna Lewis & Scott Peacock.

This cookbook has the best old fashioned southern favorites inside, which in my opinion are the best of the best when it comes to recipes.Edna's recipe is easy and straight to the point. The hardest part of the whole thing was chopping up all those vegetables. I really need to get with the times and invest in a good food processor. 

I always think it is something I wont use, well that is until I start on a recipe like this particular one. Once all the tomatoes, peppers and onions were chopped up it was downhill easy. The kids kept telling me that the house smelled really bad! LOL it was all that cider vinegar. I really didn't think it smelled that bad at all. I can Pickles and Squash Relish so I guess you get used to it. 

This recipe yielded 3 pint size jars and 5 half pint jars. Just enough to keep a few and to give away as gifts. You really need to give this relish a try especially if you are a lover of green tomatoes.

I also made a big batch of  Fried Green Tomatoes a couple weeks back and they were

awesome. I will be posting that recipe as well. If you want  try your hand at canning this is a really easy recipe to try. I really enjoyed making it, especially knowing I used almost all the vegetables called for from our very own garden.

Here is a picture of that wonderful cookbook. I think the cover is so pretty, a true southern photo, sitting out on the porch enjoying the day with food and friends. Food taste so much better when shared with someone.

These are the ingredients you will need: Full recipe at the end of this post
green tomatoes, green bell peppers, 1 yellow or red bell pepper. (the red pepper were more than $2 at the store.

I just couldn't pay that much so I used all the green bell peppers we had from our garden) its your choice. Mustard seed, celery seed, sugar, apple cider vinegar, kosher salt and 4 medium yellow onions or one very large.

To start you will need to chop the tomatoes. The recipe calls for chopping the tomatoes really fine, but I like a chunky relish so i diced up the green tomatoes. Seed and dice the peppers and chop up the onions. Add all the vegetables to a large pot.Add the mustard seed, celery seed, kosher salt,

vinegar and

sugar.

Stir well and bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and simmer over medium heat. Cook stirring often and skimming as needed. ( I did not have to skim off anything) Simmer until the relish/chow chow cooks down and thickens into a relish, about 2 hours.

this is what it looks like when it is all done. Fill and process your jars.

Sterilize the jars by placing them in a pot of boiling water. Place a large dish cloth in the bottom of large pot. Place canning jars on top of dish cloth. This will prevent the jars from having direct contact with the bottom of the pot.

Fill with cold tap water to cover the jars. Bring to a boil, this will sterilize your jars so you can fill them with your cooked mixture. After water comes to a boil turn off heat and remove jars with tongs and a hot pad. Be careful they are very hot.

Place on a dish towel on the counter. You can also sterilize them by running them through a cycle in the dishwasher. Place the lids and rings in a separate bowl add boiling water just to cover them. I place mine one up one down so they don't stick together.

Your jars are now ready to fill. Fill the sterilized jars with the hot tomato relish mixture, wipe the rim and sides of the jars with a clean wet cloth. This removes all the sticky stuff so your jar will seal.

Using canning tongs remove a lid and ring and dry with a dry clean cloth or paper towel. Place a lid and a ring on the jar and twist don't use all your strength just tighten it snug.

I place all of mine on a towel on the counter until I fill all of the jars and add the lids and rings. Place a towel on the bottom of the pot a dish cloth or dish towel is perfect. This again keeps the jars and the pot from coming into contact with each other once they are added to the pot.

So using a hot pad since the filled jars are hot place enough jars in the pot that will fit, but do not touch each other. Place on top of dish cloth. Fill the pot with enough water to cover about 1 inch above the jars. Bring the pot of water to a rolling boil.

Once it boils your processing time begins. Put the lid on the pot and process half pint jars for 5 minutes and pint size jars for 10 minutes. When the time is up remove lid and remove jars carefully.

Use tongs and a hot pad. Place jars back on the dish towel to cool on the counter. Let your jars sit on the counter overnight. In the morning press down on the lids to make sure they are sealed properly, the lid should not pop up when you press it.

Recipe Source: The Gift of Southern Cooking