You’ll find this piccalilli all over Lulu’s, said Lasse Petersen, executive chef of Lulu’s and Llewelyn’s restaurants in Herne Hill, south London. It’s sharp, bright and endlessly adaptable – the kind of thing that pulls any dish together.
Ingredients (yields 5 medium jars)
- 1.5kg mixed vegetables (e.g. cauliflower, green beans, flat beans, courgette, pearl onions, green tomatoes; onions peeled and halved, everything else cut into bite-sized pieces)
- 45g salt
- 5g fenugreek
- 5g cumin seeds
- 5g coriander seeds
- 600ml cider vinegar
- 30g cornflour
- 10g ground turmeric
- 10g English mustard powder
- pinch of dried chilli
- 5g ground ginger
- 200g caster sugar
- 15g mustard seeds
Method
- Toss the vegetables and salt and leave, preferably overnight.
- Strain and rinse well under cold water.
- Toast the fenugreek, cumin and coriander seeds until fragrant and add to the vinegar, cornflour, turmeric, mustard powder, chilli and ginger in a blender.
- Blend at high speed until the spices are finely ground and the cornflour has dispersed in the vinegar. Alternatively, you can grind spices in a pestle and mortar and then whisk into the vinegar with the cornflour.
- In a large saucepan, add the spiced vinegar and sugar and slowly bring up to heat until thickened.
- Toast your mustard seeds and add to the pickle brine.
- Meanwhile, steam your vegetables for about 4-5 minutes until cooked but still with a little bite. (Alternatively, you can cook the vegetables in the thickened pickle brine. Keep an eye on them as the brine can catch at the bottom and burn.)
- Now add the vegetables to the hot pickle, and either jar them to keep or leave to cool and eat within a week or so.
- Tips and notes: for seasonal variations, try celeriac, swede, fennel, carrot and pearl onions, or beetroot, red cabbage, radish and cauliflower.
Taken from Order Up! A Taste of London’s Favourite Restaurants. Order Up! is published in support of Hospitality Action, a charity that helps hospitality workers who’ve suffered a setback. All proceeds from book sales go to support hospitality.
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