Red Pepper and Peach Relish - A Staple in Our Home

Of all the jars in our 'fridge pharmacy', the one we value the most is Red Pepper and Peach Relish. Like butter tarts and espresso beans, we seem to be on a perpetuitous search for the best. Even though that best may possibly be our own.

We are coming off of a canning/preserves bender. Jars of minced garlic were first to the freezer, followed by basil pesto. 3/4 of a bushel of tomatoes have been reduced to sauce. Another 3/4 bushel to go. Since there were some wee jars left and produce readily available, we just continued to indulge.

We adapted our recipe from Canadian Living's Red Pepper and Peach Relish. We used two small jalapeños to give it some extra kick. We simmered the batch by an additional 20 minutes. I prefer my relish a bit thicker. It meant 8 cups instead of 9. I may consider even longer next time.

Our Ontario peaches were picked up at Farm Boy. The jalapeños and one of the red peppers came from our CSA basket from Roots and Shoots Farm. The remaining red peppers also came from Farm Boy. This week they were 99 cents a pound.

It is a lot of work doing the chopping but it makes for a beautiful, delicate relish if the peaches and red peppers are chopped very finely. On that point, I wished I had fussed a bit more. It pays to have great knife skills for this task.

We often use the relish as an accompaniment for grilled salmon. It is a good garnish for hors d'oeuvres that use cream cheese, salmon or goat cheese.