Zucchini Relish

I know you've all read about how upset I've been at the dirth of pickles in Ecuador.  I finally found a store that had sweet pickles but they just weren't what I wanted.  I wanted bread & butter pickles or, preferably, my very own zucchini relish.

I experimented with the cute little manual food grinder I had brought with me and was very discouraged.  It didn't appear that it was going to grind the skin of the zucchini and that's crucial to good zucchini relish.  Fortunately, I discovered that the first time I put it together I had put the cutting blade in the wrong direction.  I think I can be forgiven the apparently obvious mistake because the one I've been used to using for the past 15 years or so only has one way it can be put on.  At any rate, once I turned it around to the correct direction it worked much better.  It still takes quite a while to grind but it can definitely be done.


Then I went in search of the rest of the ingredients.  Thankfully I had the presence of mind to bring turmeric with me (I'll have more of that brought to me when I have visitors) because I haven't been able to find that anywhere.  The rest of it just took a little looking in various stores and food vendor stalls.  Cider vinegar was also in short supply but I found some of that as well.

With everything but jars, on Monday I ground up enough zucchini and onions to make a 3/5 batch of it, and on Tuesday I put it all together.  I've put it in zip lock baggies (if they can put everything in bags, I guess I can as well).  I will find a small jar in one of the nearby stores to use as the container for the relish I'm using right this minute.

I'm thinking of selling some of it to the English speaking community.  If I truly miss pickle relish, I'm guessing there will be others in our community of 250 or so who would like to have some as well.  All I have to do now is determine the method of sale and I'm on my way.

Here's my resulting produce--3 bags of 2 cups each and 1 bag of 1 cup: