You can use patty pans to cover the lids on recycled jars.
As kids, school holidays usually meant being woken up when it was still dark by Dad, quietly piling into the car and then making the day long drive from Melbourne to the Barossa Valley in South Australia to visit my grandparents Gran and Brookie. One of the most anticipated features of these holidays was the food. Every morning we would have Fritz on toast with tomato relish. Fritz is a sausage meat, sort of like what we would call Stras (Strasbourg) in Melbourne, but so, so, so, much better. The bread we would have was called wheatmeal bread from the General Store and the tomato relish of course was home made. You needed the three ingredients working together to make it just right. We would often drive home to Melbourne with Gran’s tomato relish and an esky filled with Fritz but it just didn’t taste the same without the wheatmeal bread. Still great but just not the same.
I loved Gran’s kitchen. There were always tall preserving jars filled with apricots lined up along the top of the cupboards. We were so excited if mulberry season had recently passed because Brookie would have picked container after container full of them to keep in the freezer for a special treat for us to enjoy as dessert. On top of the fridge there was always a jar of “rock buns”, kept firmly out of reach but brought down each day when we would sit down with everyone around the kitchen table when Brookie came in from the paddocks for a cuppa.
I use a whatever tomatoes I have. Cherry tomatoes are fine even though not traditionally used like this.
The standout dinner was a lamb roast. Being a sheep farm this makes sense. The lamb would always appear out of the cellar where the meat was kept and it was cooked in the Aga. Gran’s gravy that she cooked up with the pan juices was so good. I still don’t know what she did but it was great. I also remember they had parsnip a lot and it would get those scrumptious caramelised bits and I loved it.
An abundance of tomatoes means it’s relish time. Here is Gran’s tomato relish recipe – one of those delightful recipes passed down through the generations.
-Tillie-
- 6 lbs (2.7kg) tomatoes, chopped
- 2 lbs (900g) sugar
- 2 lbs (900g) onions, chopped
- 2 tablespoons mustard powder
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 2 1/2 cups vinegar
- Place cut up tomatoes and onions in separate dishes. Sprinkle with salt and leave to stand overnight.
- They next day, drain the tomatoes and the onions and put them in a large pot. Add sugar and vinegar and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Mix spices together with a little vinegar and add to the pot. Simmer for 1 hour.
- Bottle in sterilised jars.
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