Help please with Lemon Relish/Pickle

You can't go past this Lemon Pickle. It was posted by another poster whose name I didn't record because I never thought I'd be posting it on. I include all her notes as well. The resulting pickle is rather delicious, having made jars of the stuff regularly for the past 2 years.

LEMON PICKLE
3 Lemons - washed and thinly sliced
1 small Onion -finely sliced
2 tspns Vegetable Oil
1 tspn Salt
1 tspn Chilli Flakes,
¾ cup Caster Sugar,
1 cup White Wine Vinegar
Method
1 Blanch lemons three times in pots of boiling water
2 In a heavy based pot on low heat, sweat the onions until transparent
3 Add chilli and cook for 3 minutes being careful not to let it brown
4 Add lemon, sugar and vinegar, bring to the boil and gently cook for 1/2 hour until syrupy
5 Pour into sterilised jars
6 Makes around 400-500 mls (I think)
7
Notes to the lemon pickle recipe:
Thats the recipe I got. I made some notes to go with it! I used three lemons and sliced them thinly. I cut them in half first and got out the seeds, then sliced. The way I blanched them was to put them in a pot of cold water and brought that to the boil, then drained and covered with cold water again, bring back to the boil and then drained and covered with cold water and brought back to the boil - i.e three times and then drained quickly. My friend did the traditional quick blanching and her pickle was a little bitter. Once blanched the three times, I quickly whizzed them in the food processor before I put them in with the onion. This will give a more pickle/chutney texture.

* Quote

buzzy110 (63 )5:45 pm, Mon 30 Aug #5

This is the recipe.

Hi nfh1 and buzzy110. Those are my notes to go with the recipe. I am pleased you are enjoying it. I love it with some tasty cheese. I don't 'cool' the lemons between blanching but rather just pour the whole lot through a colander with the water going down the sink. Put the 'pulp' back into the pot, cover with cold water and bring it back to the boil. Last time I made this, I didn't have any chilli flakes so I used a little bit of cayenne instead. Be careful with that as it can be very hot but nice too. It just lacks the nice colour contrast the flakes give it.

Just remembered where I got the original recipe from! It came from the Gardening newsletter by Lynda Hallinan (sp) I used to subscribe to. That's where the credit goes.

evorotorua - the pickle is delicious and I get requests for it all the time so I'm quite busy in season. I'll put your name onto my saved recipe so that I can give credit where credit is due next time.

Sorry I don't know as I've only ever followed the recipe. Personally I wouldn't use malt vinegar purely for ascetic reasons and I thought there was enough texture in the thinly sliced version.

I have used malt vinegar and there is no taste difference but the pickle has an "old" look to it. Kind of a bit browny as you would expect. I also have used plain white vinegar. I am not sure about the 'thick' slicing. It does have a good texture, not smooth. I would suggest to try it as per the recipe first and that will give you a guide to what you like. It doesn't make a lot so it won't take long to get through until you need another batch anyway. At a guess it would make about a jar and a half of a Craigs jam jar.

I really like the sound of this Lemon Pickle.Was wondering if I could double the recipe as I have quite a few people I would like to give a jar to as gifts.Do-able! Also, I don't have a food processor so would be slicing by hand - hope this won't change the texture too much.

I made this and did NOT change the water in between blanching and ended up with lemon marmalade (bitter and put in the bin!)so be warned, change the water!

I don't see any reason why you couldn't double the recipe. I put mine into quite small jars as well so I can make three jars per recipe. Two Xmas' ago I made up 12 small jars of Lemon Pickle, and 12 normal sized jars of a chutney, a pickle, a relish and a jam and presented them as gifts. Made that Xmas really simple because it only took me about five days cooking all up, with most made in Feb or March when the produce is plentiful and I didn't have any stress come Xmas.

Edited to add - I use a mondolin so cutting is speedy, easy and uniform.