Monday, December 7, 2009

Antipasto

Click to enlarge.

This is one of those recipes that, when you look at all the ingredients separately, you'd think would taste fairly yucky. But, when they're all chopped, blended and cooked, the result is something you'll find yourself craving throughout the year, not just at Christmas when you make your batch.

I got the recipe from the best cook I know, my sister Wendy. She gave me a jar of her home-made antipasto for Christmas one year and I immediately followed up with a request for the recipe. There's a lot of ingredients and a lot of chopping to do but the end result is worth the effort.


Here's your step-by-step process.


1. Cut the cauliflower into tiny floweretts - small enough to perch on a Ritz cracker along with other veggie bits when it's done.



2. Cook for 7 minutes, drain and dump into large pot into which you'll add the rest of the ingredients.


3. Chop up the rest of the vegetables and put them into the large kettle with the cauliflower. Don't these red and green peppers look festive!





4. Olives - one of the few foods I really don't like, but in Antipasto they're good. I cheat and buy canned sliced black olives. The green stuffed ones still need to be chopped.





5. Add the green beans - I chop these ones up a bit too. If you don't like green beans, put them in anyway. They won't taste like green beans any longer - just delicious antipasto tasting.


Just look at that wonderful One-Touch can opener work it's magic - press the button and let it do its thing.






6. Sweet pickled onions and my favorite pickle, gherkins. Chop those babies up and add them to the pot. Add the juice from the gherkins too for added flavor and juice.







7. The best part - add the two cans of small shrimp and three cans of solid white tuna.



8. Pour in 20 oz. of tomato juice and 1 litre (or quart) of ketchup, salt, vinegar and oil.




This is what it looks like when all the ingredients have been added.









9. After it boils for 15 minutes it's ready to be sealed in your pint jars.










10. The finished product. Now sit and listen to the sound of the jars lids popping as they seal. The one that doesn't seal (there's always one!) becomes the taster jar that you keep in the fridge and sample from whenever you happen to open the fridge door for any reason at all.


Good stuff.