If you are a cheese lover, no doubt you have tried the many fruit pastes that are currently very popular as accompaniments to cheese. Well today I have a new delicious alternative to add to your next cheese platter – Sweet Red Capsicum Relish. It is particularly good with soft cheeses such as brie and Camembert.
This is a new recipe I’ve made several times and several jars of will be given away as Christmas gifts. However, we have already started to consume a fair bit ourselves. Not only is the taste fantastic, the colour is such a wonderful vivid red (I hope the photo does it justice) and it brings a bright colourful cheer wherever it is served.
This recipe was inspired by one in Australian Good Food last month where it was called ‘marmalade’. When served to friends, they felt ‘relish’ was a more appropriate term, so relish it is. If you have some red capsicums on hand, there is still time to make some for Christmas presents yourself.
Sweet Red Capsicum Relish
Sweet Red Capsicum Relish
Ingredients
2kg red capsicums
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups white sugar
1 ½ cups white vinegar
Method
Deseed capsicums and cut into thin strips. Place in a colander over the sink and sprinkle with salt. Stand for 3 hours. This process draws moisture from the capsicum and softens it.
Transfer capsicum to a heavy based saucepan and add remaining ingredients. Stir over medium heat to dissolve sugar then bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and allow mixture to simmer for 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. The mixture will become thick and syrupy, ensure it doesn’t stick and burn towards the end of the cooking time.
Spoon hot relish into sterilized jars and seal tightly.
The Klutzy Cook Notes
- To sterilize the jars select a suitable number of jars (makes about 3 – 3 1/2 cups). Wash the jars and lids in hot soapy water then rinse well in hot water and drain. Put the jars into a low oven (100C-120C/210F-250F) for 30 minutes. Remove the jars a few minutes before use so that they are still warm when bottling the relish.
- This relish is not only great with cheese, it can also be served with cold meats and in sandwiches.
How would you serve this relish? Please leave your comments and questions below.
Muffins have been a bit of a feature in our kitchen lately (see Strawberry Muffins) including this savoury Cheese Muffin version being added to the repertoire.
There is a good reason they’re such a staple as muffins are really the ultimate in family cooking – easy to make, eaten by all and extremely versatile. The latter is because you can take a basic muffin mix and using whatever ingredients are on hand, turn them into a dozen yummy muffins that won’t last a day (in my house anyway). The other great thing about muffins is that they freeze well and can always be on hand to pop into lunchboxes, picnic baskets or for a quick morning tea treat.
This Cheese Muffin recipe with a hint of herbs is fantastic for dunking in soups or soaking up stew juices. They offer an alternative to bread for serving with meals and add a bit of variety.
Cheese Muffin
Cheese Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
2 cups self-raising flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup grated tasty cheese
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs (optional)
Method
Preheat oven to 200C (390F) and lightly grease a 12 hole muffin pan. Alternatively place muffin cases into the pan holes.
Add the flour to a mixing bowl and make a well. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together. Stir until the ingredients are just combined. The mixture should still be pretty lumpy.
Divide the mixture evenly among the muffin holes filling each to about 1/2 full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Test the muffins are cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre of a muffin. When cooked, it will come out clean.
The Klutzy Cook Notes
- Use whatever herbs or spices are on hand to create a different flavor each time.
- Store in an airtight container for 1-2 days or freeze immediately.
- Next time your serving soup, try these cheese muffins as a delicious alternative to bread.
Do you have any savoury muffins you’d like to share?
Other easy baking recipes you might like:
Strawberry Muffins
Vanilla Birthday Cake
Nanna’s Ginger Biscuits
Last weekend we were off to a friend’s place to celebrate her birthday. Although we weren’t asked to take any food (in fact told not to), I usually like to take something along. And for some reason, the only thing on my mind was Cheese Dip Recipes. Out came the cookbooks and magazines – I was obsessed with finding the exact recipe that I felt like – I didn’t know exactly which one it was, but would know when I saw it.
Sometimes that’s how it is. I read recipe after recipe, after recipe passing many worthy contenders over for a very good reason. It’s not what I feel like at the time or I don’t have all the ingredients ready to go or it just looks all too hard. Then all of a sudden THE recipe presents itself and it’s a reminder of why you have all those cookbooks, magazines, hand written recipes, torn out bits of paper and so on. Without this library of recipe resources to call on, there is no way you can find the right one. It is a total justification of the recipe hoarding process (in my view anyway).
Anyway, back to the Cheese Dip Recipes. The right recipe for that day was eluding me and I had just about resigned myself to going ‘dipless’ when it appeared. Better still it was quick, easy and needed ingredients I already had. Problem solved. This delightful dip recipe was found in the “4 Ingredients 2″ book. It’s great served warm with some toasted French loaf or crackers.
Also below is another recipe that would have made the grade, except I didn’t have the asparagus on hand. It is another of those warm cheese dip recipes that is very more-ish.
Easy Cheese Dip Recipe 1
From “4 Ingredients 2″
2 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon cumin
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
¾ cup sour cream
Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir through the cumin. Cook gently for 1 minute (to release cumin flavor) and add sour cream. Once heated, stir through the cheese and continue stirring until it is all melted and the mixture is smooth.
Easy Cheese Dip Recipe 2
1 tin asparagus, mashed
1 cup mayonnaise
½ cup parmesan
Mix ingredients together well in an oven proof dish and heat in a slow oven until warm and cheese is melted. Serve with crusty bread or crackers.
Any Cheese Dip Recipes you’d like to share?
