Why It Works
- Utilizing a meals processor to cut the plentiful greens within the recipe saves time and power.
- Tossing the chopped greens with salt and refrigerating them in a single day permits the greens to launch their extra moisture, making certain a much less watery and extra flavorful and crunchy pickled relish.
- Utilizing a mix of mustard powder, mustard seeds, spices, and a really small quantity of turmeric offers the relish a punchy taste and delightful golden coloration with out overpowering the greens.
Chow-chow, the candy and tangy relish of pickled greens, is a staple condiment on many Southern tables. Whereas it’s beloved all through the South, the kinds of greens in it could possibly fluctuate relying on the place you discover it. Right here we persist with probably the most widespread combos: inexperienced tomatoes, inexperienced cabbage, bell peppers, and onions. The pickled vegetable combination is a good way to take advantage of end-of-season inexperienced tomatoes and different late summer time produce earlier than that first frost hits.
The chunky relish is tart, candy, and certain to deliver a welcome pucker to your mouth. And it retains within the fridge for as much as 4 months, so you possibly can pull it out to brighten up nearly any meal—sizzling canines, hamburgers, coleslaw, stewed beans, and even salads.
Making the relish is pretty easy: The greens are merely chopped, salted, and pickled within the fridge with a medley of spices, nevertheless it’s essential to organize the greens correctly for chow-chow that’s flavorful and retains a crisp texture. For the perfect chow-chow to take you from summer time proper by way of the coldest days of fall, we requested our take a look at kitchen colleague Renu Dhar to methodically pickle batch after batch to give you our foolproof technique. Learn on for Renu’s ideas and the complete recipe.
Suggestions for Making Chow-Chow
Use a meals processor. We strongly encourage you to drag out your meals processor to cut the cabbage, bell pepper, and onion on this recipe as an alternative of chopping the components by hand. This may prevent quite a lot of time and power. Should you don’t have a meals processor, in fact go forward and simply chop every thing with a chef’s knife—simply be certain your knife is nice and sharp for the most secure, best chopping. One exception to the meals processor suggestion: Make sure to nonetheless lower the tomatoes by hand. Pulsing them in a meals processor will give them a sauce-like consistency, which we are not looking for for this relish.
Salt the greens in a single day earlier than pickling. It’s essential to toss the chopped greens with an plentiful quantity of salt and allow them to sit for an prolonged time period earlier than pickling them. Throughout this hands-off resting time, the greens will launch extra liquid, which shall be later discarded earlier than they’re pickled. We’ve beforehand talked at size about the benefits of brining vegetables, and encourage you to examine it. Basically, brining drives water out of the lower greens, concentrating taste and firming up their texture barely for a extra scrumptious, completely crunchy relish.
For greatest outcomes, begin the brining course of at room temperature and let the veggies sit for about 20 minutes to leap begin the method, then refrigerate the bowl of salted chopped greens for a minimum of eight hours or as much as 12. You’ll be amazed by how a lot water seeps out of them on this timeframe—nearly three full cups water from about 4 kilos of greens! While you’re able to pickle, drain and discard the entire extra liquid earlier than continuing with the recipe.
Add sturdy seasonings. Earthy turmeric, fiery chile flakes, tangy mustard powder, brown mustard seeds, and celery seeds add a pop of taste to the in any other case easy vegetable combination. This mix of spices is flavorful sufficient so as to add curiosity to the relish with out overwhelming the greens, making it good to pair with a spread of meals.
Severe Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze
Suggestions for Storing and Canning Chow-Chow
The recipe was examined and written utilizing quick time period refrigeration storage, which is able to protect the chow-chow for about 4 months. However the pickled chow-chow may also be preserved utilizing the recent water bathtub canning technique that we define in our beginner’s guide to canning. With this technique, the chow-chow will be saved for as much as a 12 months. Whether or not you go for the recent water bathtub canning technique or the simpler refrigeration storage, we suggest at all times utilizing sterilized glass jars.
Tips on how to Sterilize Jars for Your Relish
To correctly sterilize jars, place clear jars on a rack in a big pot and canopy by a minimum of one inch of water. Deliver to a boil and sterilize the jars by boiling for 10 minutes. You’ll be able to then take away the jars with lengthy steel tongs and fill instantly, or scale back the warmth to a low simmer and maintain the jars heat till you’re prepared to make use of them. Make certain to chill the crammed jars to room temperature earlier than sealing and refrigerating. This may stop trapping extreme steam within the jars, which might result in mildew progress.
Tips on how to Serve Chow-Chow
Probably the greatest issues about chow-chow is its versatility, and the way it provides vibrant, candy and tangy taste to every thing you pair with it. Unfold the Southern relish over a sizzling canine or a burger, combine it in a one-to-one ratio by quantity with good mayonnaise for the right coleslaw dressing or sandwich unfold, or spunk up a bowl of beans with a spoonful chow-chow and a aspect of cornbread.
This recipe was developed by Renu Dhar; the headnote was written by Leah Colins.
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