My favourite Mustard Pickle recipe ... one of the best ways to use up lots of greenhouse tomatoes and remember the lovely summer days in the greenhouse as you tuck into cheese and pickle when it’s cold and frosty outside ...

What You’ll Need ...
2lb Mixed Vegetables – tomatoes, cauliflower, courgettes (or marrow), runner beans, strong small onions or anything else you fancy adding
2oz Salt
1 pint Water
1 pint Malt Vinegar
Pickling Spices – between 1-3 teaspoons depending on your preference
½ teaspoon of Cornflour
1 tablespoon of Mustard powder
2 teaspoons of Turmeric – for that distinctive ‘yellow’
Ground Ginger – 1 or 2 teaspoons it’s up to you
2oz Sugar – or if you want to make a sweet pickle make this up to 4oz

A Bit Of Preparation ...
First thing to do is make the brine – in a larger bowl mix the water and salt together. Into this you add all the vegetables – washed clean and cut into bit size pieces remembering to leave the skins on the tomatoes. Then leave to soak overnight – they should be in the brine for at least 12 hours.
After this time, rinse all the vegetables in cold water and leave to dry.

Here’s The Hard Work ...
Add ¾ pint of vinegar and pickling spices to a large pan and bring to the boil. To make a strong flavoured pickle boil for 5 minutes ... the shorter the time the milder the flavour. In the remaining ¼ pint vinegar mix the rest of the ingredients (excluding the vegetables). Then slowly stir the hot vinegar into the cold vinegar mixture, stirring as you pour. Then put the vinegar back into the pan and warm over a low heat until the mixture starts to thicken ... At this point, add in the vegetables and simmer for around 5 minutes. It’s now ready to spoon into warm, clean jars.

All you have to do now is sit back and relax ... ready for cheese and homemade pickle ... yummy