There’s a big trend for home made Christmas, and if you’ve got a garden, or even a balcony, you can make some wonderful gifts for your nearest and dearest with natural produce.
Let’s start with the easiest gifts to grow and make, the salt or spice rubs. If you have rosemary in a window box, and some rough salt, you have the basics of a great flavouring for grilled veggies or barbecued meats. You’ll need about a quarter of a cup, or 50g of salt, for a small jar. I like sel de Guérande, but any really coarse, crunchy salt will do, and a good tablespoon of rosemary, about a couple of decent sized twigs. Take the leaves off the rosemary, and chop them very finely, and mix with the salt. Spread it out on a baking tray to dry overnight. If you’re feeling really fancy, you can add some grated lemon zest, half a lemon is fine for this amount, or some dried chillies. You can also make sage, oregano, bay, thyme salts or blend them together to make a mixed herb combination. Add a gift tag and a bow, and you're all set!
If you grew tomatoes this year, then I bet you’ve got some green ones around that didn’t quite make it into the “edible right now” classification. Green tomato chutney is one of my absolute favourites to have with cheese, dropped into bolognese or to improve a bland casserole. There are dozens of recipes, the easiest ones start off by caramelizing sugar in a pan, and then you throw in white wine vinegar, onions or shallots, the tomatoes and maybe ginger, chillies and garlic, if you or your giftees like a bit of a kick. It takes about an hour to cook down to a lovely gooey mush, then spoon it into sterilised jars, you can do it in the dishwasher, let it cool, put the lids on and label it up. It will keep for 6 months, and needs to be in the fridge, once opened. For every 500g of tomatoes, you'll need about 150ml of vinegar, and 150g of sugar.
We’ve talked about making your own kimchi or sauerkraut, but if you don’t have time or just can’t deal with the waiting around, why not make pickled red cabbage? It doesn’t have to be from your garden, although if you have a spare one, or any of the spices from the garden, that’s an added bonus!
You’ll need 500g of red cabbage, a small one should do.
Chop it up finely and rub it with salt, an hour is fine but longer is better - this helps draw out any excess moisture and keep the cabbage crunchy
Separately combine 300ml of any vinegar and the same volume of water, plus 50g of sugar and a mix of any spices that you like - the basic recipe suggests fennel seed, chilli flakes and the juice and zest of a lime, but you can switch them around and use cumin or coriander, which I love, and mustard seeds, which are also delicious. Heat it up in a saucepan to let the sugar dissolve and then cool and strain if you don’t want the spices in there.
Put the cabbage in a sieve to drain and then pack it into the jars, and pour over the vinegar mixture to cover the cabbage. The mix should be kept in the fridge and lasts until Valentine’s Day.
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