Rhubarb chutney

I went up North for the first half of the Jubilee weekend to see my family, and came back with a big bag of rhubarb someone from my mum’s school gives her every week. She already has a freezer full of the stuff and is getting pretty sick of it so asked if I had any ideas of what to use it for. I took some off her hands to make into chutney.

Rhubarb

Having trawled recipe sites for about an hour I’ve decided to come up with my own version of rhubarb chutney.

I’ve never made rhubarb chutney before but imagine it will be just to my taste, since I love the tartness of this fruit in a crumble. Some pieces look beautiful – like sweeties – but stripping off the vivid pinky-red string leaves most of them looking pale green and uninteresting. An hour or so in the chutney pan does even more damage – the result is a brown mush that looks completely unappetising. Despite this I have great hopes for this chutney, but will have to wait at least a month to find out if I’m right.

Rhubarb chutney

Rhubarb chutney ingredients

• 1.15kg rhubarb
• 500g raisins
• 3 medium onions
• 500ml cider vinegar
• 450g soft brown sugar (I ran out and used about 75g demerara sugar with the rest soft brown
• This much ginger (butter for comparison)

Ginger, about the length of a packet of butter

OK, if you insist, it was about 25g

• 5 cloves
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns

How to make rhubarb chutney

  

1. Chop the rhubarb into short pieces 

 

2. Roughly chop the onions

3. Put everything in a very large pan - preferably a preserving pan
4. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 3 hours, till the chutney is thick
5. Turn off the heat and allow the chutney to cool slightly
5. Pot into sterilized jars while still warm