When I was a kid my aunt used to make wonderful corn relish which I enjoyed on hot dogs and hamburgers. From time to time I buy a jar of corn relish to try and relive those childhood memories but it is never as good. I suspect that is true of most childhood memories.
This summer we decided that we'd like to make some corn relish of our own. Many of the store-bought ones are rather sweet so we hunted for a recipe that was more on the savoury side . . . the corn is sweet enough without a ton of added sugars!
After exploring with google for a bit we found this recipe on a blog that was new to us - foodiewithfamily. The blogger described it like this:
Trust me. Once you've tried this, you're going to want shelves lined with crunchy, savoury, sweet, zippy, Zesty Corn Relish
OK. I was sold.
Last Friday I bought some wonderful looking corn at the market and on Saturday Paul shucked it all while I sliced, diced, and chopped the rest of the ingredients.
We made one small change to the recipe -I like a bit of onion in my corn relish so I added a cup of chopped onion.
The recipe itself was easy to follow and resulted in 7 jars of yummy looking relish. I didn't find it to have much heat from the jalapenos - this may because of the peppers we used to because they haven't had time to release their heat. We'll let the relish sit for a month or so to allow the flavours to come out before we open a jar.
Zesty Corn Relish
18 ears of fresh sweet corn on the cob
2 cups diced red bell pepper
1½ cups diced green bell pepper
½ cup minced fresh jalapeno
¼ cup minced garlic
2 tablespoons coarse Kosher salt
4 teaspoons dried mustard powder
4 cups cider vinegar
1 cup water
⅔ cup light brown sugar
Sterilize at least 8 pint jars (you may only use 6, but it's better to have too many jars ready than to have to sterilize more jars while your relish waits!).
Shuck the corn and carefully remove the silks. Stand each ear of corn sturdily on its end on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to remove the kernels. Discard the cobs.
In a large stainless steel or other nonreactive pot, stir together all of the ingredients and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally. When it reaches a boil, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes.
Ladle the hot corn relish into sterile jars, leaving ½-inch of headspace in the jar. Remove air bubbles, adjust corn and liquid level if necessary to maintain the ½-inch headspace. Wipe and clean the rim of the jars with a paper towel moistened with vinegar. Fix new two piece lids in place and screw the rings to fingertip tightness.
Put the filled, lidded jars in a canner, ensure they are covered by at least an inch of hot water, bring to a boil, and process for 15 minutes at a full boil, covered. When the 15 minutes are up, turn off the heat, remove the lid and let the jars rest in the water for 5 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack or a clean towel lined counter top.
Let them cool, undisturbed, for 24 hours. When they are completely cool, carefully remove the rings, wipe the jars clean, label (with sharpie or sticker), and store on a shelf in a place out of direct sunlight for up to a year.
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