This is a recipe I’ve been modifying over the years and has had several incarnations. The truth is, the ‘carrier’ ingredient will take on your spices so it will work with almost whatever you have a glut of. I’ll warn you now this has a good amount of ‘kick’ to it so is not for the feint hearted. Goes amazingly with burgers and strong bitter cheeses.

I have a sack of onions from the farm shop that I bought for all of about £3, and true to Murphy’s Law, the moment I arrived home with them, the ones I was growing on my vegetable patch immediately grew to be bursting out of the soil. So I want to make good use of my farmshop ones before I harvest my very own first ever onion out of the ground.

This particular recipe has become an absolute summer favourite and everybody always requests it when we have a barbecue. I’ve used tomatoes, marrow, courgettes, red onions, white ones, or millions of peppers on occasion, you just need something like 3kg of the bulk of veg to make your relish! I’d recommend 2kg of tomatoes/courgette/marrow and 1kg onions as a good mix. But if you only had 1.5kg of courgettes then use 1.5kg onions to make up the overall 3kg. Make sense? Here I’m using mainly onions, as that’s what I have. The whole idea for me about making chutneys and relishes is to preserve the seasons’ harvest. It’s utter nonsense to me to have to go to the supermarket and buy a million ingredients so I tend to work towards a recipe where possible but not go out and spend £30 on things to make it. I used to use normal paprika then one day I’d run out so thought ‘hmmm, I’ll used the smoked one then, what’s not to like?’ – well, it was so triumphant that it has remained a staple and gives a fantastic one of a kind smokey flavour.

So here’s my recipe for today:

3kg White onions, peeled and chopped

8 peppers, mixed colours is pretty!

3 large red chillies with seeds, chopped

300ml water

500ml red or white wine or cider vinegar

300g granulated sugar

75g mustard seeds

25g celery salt

50g smoked paprika

1 teaspoon salt

Right. Chop the onions, peppers and chillies and pop into your preserving pan with the water and cook down until everything softens and the onions become opaque.  Keep turning it all over.

Add the rest of the ingredients and bubble away (maybe an hour) stirring regularly to make sure it doesn’t catch to the bottom of the pan.

You want it to get to a consistency where there is very little liquid left and when you drag a wooden spoon through it, it just leaves a faint line. Turn off the heat and pot into warm, sterilised jars.

This one is ready after just a few weeks unlike chutney that take up to three months.

It’s also fantastic with a Spanish omelette!

Enjoy x