Rutabaga Relish

Deep Run Roots

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. Honestly I don't often use relishes or pickles except in things like deviled eggs or on burgers. I don't know why, because they are a great addition to lots of things, adding crunch and acidity where it is often needed...including the other recipe we made this to serve with. Stay tuned for that one coming soon!

I found this recipe here: https://thelocalpalate.com/recipes/tom-thumb-with-dirty-farro-and-rutabaga-relsih/

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[00:04]: hi and welcome to cooking the books with
[00:07]: Heather today really we play it on
[00:10]: making a different recipe next week but
[00:15]: in order to do that it calls for serving
[00:18]: it with a couple other things and the
[00:20]: first thing needs to sit for a week
[00:22]: before it is at its best so today we are
[00:25]: making rutabaga relish and I'm just
[00:31]: going to get right into it this is
[00:32]: something that you can you can preserve
[00:34]: in jars or you can leave in the
[00:36]: refrigerator for up to six months I'm
[00:40]: probably going to put some in the
[00:41]: refrigerator and in jar and can with hot
[00:45]: water bath
[00:46]: like maybe half of it because it makes
[00:48]: two forks so the first thing we do there
[00:53]: are some very specific instructions on
[00:54]: how to cut the rutabaga but she does say
[01:00]: that's just for looks and you can use
[01:03]: your dicing blade on your food processor
[01:08]: but I'm gonna try to do it the way she
[01:10]: says to do it in here so at my grocery
[01:15]: store right now this was the smallest
[01:19]: rutabaga I could find the recipe calls
[01:24]: for one and a half pounds this by itself
[01:27]: was almost 2 pounds so that would be
[01:29]: good once we turn it all up it'll be
[01:31]: less I already trimmed off the top in
[01:33]: the bottom and I'm going to use my
[01:36]: peeler and take off all of the skin and
[01:38]: you can definitely tell it's been waxed
[01:41]: to help it last longer so it doesn't
[01:44]: lose its moisture so excuse me I'm just
[01:48]: gonna peel it
[01:52]: okay peeled it before I get to chopping
[01:55]: what I'm gonna do is go ahead and make
[01:56]: up the brine for this a little bit of
[02:01]: skin in there with my peeling it's
[02:05]: really salt and water and it's a lot of
[02:08]: salt that you just whisk into the water
[02:13]: to get it fully dissolved I think that's
[02:20]: as well dissolved as it's going to get
[02:23]: and I'm just gonna leave this here so
[02:26]: that when I have some pieces sliced up I
[02:30]: can just drop them in there and leave
[02:34]: them in there for at least six overnight
[02:36]: or at least six hours so we're gonna do
[02:39]: overnight because six hours from now it
[02:42]: will be like 9:30 so her instructions
[02:48]: say to slice it in half this way sort of
[02:52]: lengthwise this is tough vegetable to
[02:58]: cut okay and then create wedges this
[03:06]: sort of one inch wedges so it's sort of
[03:11]: like a pie shape I'm not going to cut it
[03:13]: this way but I want to show you so kind
[03:16]: of like that is our goal but because you
[03:21]: have a nice flat edge this way cutting
[03:23]: it this way is easier
[03:26]: this is a hard hard thing good
[03:39]: I'm not doing so great but
[04:06]: not all great but that's the gist of it
[04:10]: and then you slice these so they look
[04:15]: like little pizza pizza wedges 1/16 inch
[04:20]: thick that's pretty thin I don't know if
[04:24]: I can do that but we'll try
[04:51]: okay so I've done that with one of my
[04:56]: pieces and I'm gonna keep going until I
[04:59]: have all of this very large rutabaga cut
[05:05]: up sliced up and in my brain talking
[05:12]: about 15 minutes but I have sliced up
[05:16]: all of our rutabaga into the sort of
[05:18]: triangles they're not all perfect but
[05:20]: I'm sure they'll be fine and they are
[05:23]: sitting in our brine and all you do is
[05:26]: let it sit overnight or a minimum of six
[05:31]: hours like I said and I think we just
[05:32]: let it sit on the counter I'll probably
[05:34]: cover it with some plastic wrap because
[05:36]: we still have the occasional fly it
[05:40]: hasn't gotten cold enough to kill all
[05:41]: the bugs yet we still have the
[05:42]: occasional fly flying around the house
[05:46]: so I'm probably gonna cover it with
[05:48]: plastic wrap but you just let it sit
[05:50]: like this overnight and we'll be back to
[05:53]: do the rest in the morning so I have to
[05:56]: admit we're going on 22 hours of the
[06:01]: rutabagas being soaked in the salt
[06:04]: solution right now I tasted one pretty
[06:05]: salty but hopefully that's gonna be okay
[06:08]: I've just had a hard time fitting this
[06:09]: into my life but we're gonna go ahead
[06:10]: and keep going we've got an onion and a
[06:15]: couple of red bell peppers to go in the
[06:17]: relish these also need to soak in a salt
[06:19]: solution for about an hour so we're
[06:24]: supposed to cut these into a julienne
[06:26]: over like one to two inches long and
[06:29]: then a thin slice so that is what I am
[06:33]: going to do with my onions first
[06:44]: and yeah I meant to get this salt
[06:52]: solution done before this she says to
[06:55]: just add the salt and the water to the
[06:59]: vegetables I'm gonna go ahead and stir
[07:00]: the salt into the water once again I had
[07:07]: to do some complicated matter because
[07:11]: the the recipe calls for the rest of the
[07:14]: salt with the water and the original
[07:18]: total amount was 2/3 of a cup and then
[07:21]: you used half a cup with the rutabagas
[07:24]: and so I had to figure out exactly how
[07:27]: to measure what half of 1/3 so 1/6 of a
[07:36]: cup of salt because I don't have a 1 6
[07:40]: minutes measurement you might but
[07:48]: salt is almost all resolved but for your
[07:53]: information it was two tablespoons plus
[07:55]: two teaspoons if I got my math right
[07:58]: that's what it should be so I'm gonna go
[08:01]: ahead and put the onion in here and then
[08:04]: we're going to slice up the bell peppers
[08:08]: now she says to take the tops and the
[08:11]: bottoms off and then slice down the
[08:17]: middle so you end up with sort of one
[08:21]: long piece and you can you take out of
[08:27]: course the the core the seeds and the
[08:35]: membranes and the seeds stick to
[08:39]: everything kind of like onion skins but
[08:43]: I'm just gonna pull those out and that's
[08:50]: pretty good because it doesn't really
[08:53]: want to stretch out and then you cut it
[08:56]: like this tiny the middle and then you
[09:01]: can probably clean up some of these
[09:02]: membrane pieces a little bit better
[09:05]: especially down towards the bottom and
[09:07]: then cut them in the same general shape
[09:10]: as the time as the onions tip it's hard
[09:19]: sometimes if your knife isn't really
[09:20]: sharp to get through this side first so
[09:23]: just go from the inside out the skin
[09:27]: it's just a little more tough to get
[09:29]: your knife through tends to slip off
[09:47]: okay I've got my onions done I've got my
[09:50]: peppers done and they're all soaking in
[09:52]: the salt solution and this needs to soak
[09:55]: for one hour while this soaks I'm gonna
[09:57]: go ahead and rinse and drain the
[10:00]: rutabagas and get those in a bowl and
[10:03]: when after the hours up I'll rinse and
[10:05]: drain these and then I'll get everything
[10:08]: set up to make the brine the sugar
[10:12]: vinegar solution that we're gonna make
[10:17]: for this to put over top of it so we'll
[10:19]: be back in about an hour so our onions
[10:23]: and peppers soaked for about an hour and
[10:27]: I rinsed and drained drained and rinsed
[10:30]: those and the rutabagas and they're in
[10:32]: this bowl here see that right there and
[10:37]: now we're gonna make the liquid that it
[10:40]: sits in which is apple cider vinegar
[10:44]: both dark brown and white sugar here and
[10:51]: in this bowl we have turmeric powder
[10:57]: there we go and in this bowl we have
[11:02]: cardamom seeds mustard seeds chili
[11:05]: flakes and some sliced garlic so all
[11:09]: this goes in here and we bring it up to
[11:12]: a boil and boil it for one minute all
[11:16]: right so I'm gonna get that boiling I am
[11:20]: going to
[11:22]: water-bath can my relish because I have
[11:27]: got a ton of quart jars in the
[11:30]: refrigerator already and I can I don't I
[11:32]: don't need all this in the refrigerator
[11:34]: for right now so I'm gonna water bath
[11:35]: key in it I'm not gonna show you how to
[11:37]: do that that is I mean I've done it
[11:39]: before with jelly with me and jams and
[11:42]: jellies
[11:43]: I haven't done a relish before but it's
[11:48]: relatively simple there are instructions
[11:50]: in the book and they're there you can
[11:54]: find instructions online but definitely
[11:56]: the fact something you need to be
[11:57]: careful about because you don't want
[11:59]: your food to be contaminated you know
[12:02]: that kind of stuff so I'm not going to
[12:03]: teach you how to do that but I'm gonna
[12:05]: do that with mine and to do that you
[12:08]: have to have your your jars hot and your
[12:15]: your mixture hot when you put it in the
[12:17]: jars so the jars don't anyway so my jars
[12:20]: are here and have been sterilized and
[12:23]: are gonna remain hot in the water or
[12:26]: while we do all this
[12:28]: [Music]
[12:33]: so we're just gonna wait for this to
[12:35]: come to a boil all right it's boiling
[12:38]: I'm gonna let it boil for a minute and
[12:39]: then pour it over the vegetables it's
[12:43]: been a minute the boiling vinegar got to
[12:46]: my nose a couple times but always does
[12:48]: and just a note so this is a nonreactive
[12:53]: heat proof Bowl it's stainless steel and
[12:57]: my countertops are natural stone if you
[13:00]: do not have natural stone countertops
[13:03]: you probably don't want to pour boiling
[13:04]: liquid into a bowl that will transfer
[13:07]: the heat so do it on a heating pad or on
[13:12]: your stove but just gonna put this in
[13:16]: here and then stir it all up and she
[13:22]: says to try to make sure that the
[13:24]: vegetables are submerged
[13:31]: all right and at this point all I have
[13:34]: at this point if you if you are planning
[13:37]: to just put it in refrigerator you can
[13:39]: put it in whatever you're gonna put it
[13:40]: in and put it in the refrigerator if
[13:42]: you're planning a water bath can it
[13:44]: that's this is when you do that while
[13:46]: it's still hot so that is what I'm gonna
[13:48]: do and we'll show you what it looks like
[13:51]: and let you know what it tastes like
[13:53]: after a week you have to let this sit
[13:55]: for about a week for it to be at its
[13:57]: best so you have to think ahead on this
[14:02]: one
[14:11]: on this episode of cooking the books
[14:14]: with Heather we made rutabaga relish and
[14:17]: we made this mostly because it was
[14:20]: called for another recipe but we all
[14:22]: really enjoyed it we thought it was good
[14:24]: and we thought it was a good sort of
[14:28]: sweet and sour pickle a little bit less
[14:30]: sweet than the sweet potato mustard on
[14:33]: which you'll probably see soon if you
[14:35]: haven't seen it already who knows but so
[14:39]: it was relatively easy involved cutting
[14:45]: the rutabagas in a particular way that
[14:48]: was a little bit more difficult but that
[14:51]: is not entirely necessary for it that
[14:54]: was mostly for looks it did take a lot
[14:58]: of time so there are a lot of steps
[15:01]: where you did something and then waited
[15:04]: overnight for 30 minutes or hours and so
[15:08]: that was it was a little bit difficult
[15:10]: to work into my day if you weren't
[15:15]: paying really good attention because we
[15:18]: started to make it a couple times before
[15:19]: we actually got through it because every
[15:24]: time was like oh I won't be here and
[15:26]: when you know we're gonna be away when
[15:28]: we need to do the next step and so that
[15:32]: was a little more difficult but as long
[15:35]: as you don't can it if you don't
[15:37]: preserve it it doesn't require anything
[15:40]: special and you can just leave it in
[15:41]: your refrigerator it's a it's a pickle
[15:43]: right so so it's a pickled relish type
[15:47]: thing so it will last a while and their
[15:49]: refrigerator but I did go ahead and can
[15:51]: mine didn't show that to you but they do
[15:55]: have she does have some instructions in
[15:57]: the book about how to do that so yeah I
[16:01]: would certainly suggest that if you are
[16:05]: a fan of relishes if you need a little
[16:07]: extra something if you want to make
[16:11]: something nice for people for Christmas
[16:13]: this is a good option so I hope
[16:17]: everybody enjoyed this episode if you
[16:19]: did please hit the like button and
[16:21]: subscribe to come back next week and
[16:24]: watch me make something else
[16:28]: [Music]