Another apple chutney

Boring apple chutney photo

A couple of Saturdays ago I spent a delightful afternoon having lunch in the garden with friends.

Although a small child fell in the pond an unexpected bonus was that one of the guests brought me a box of apples from her garden.

Kathy, I doubt you'll ever make your own chutney, but if you do, here's your recipe.

Kathy's apples chutney ingredients

• 1kg apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
• 2 medium to large onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 500g sultanas
• 350g light muscovado sugar
• 500ml cider vinegar
• 1 star anise
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

How to make apple chutney

1. Put everything in a preserving pan, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. 
2. Continue to cook until thick, stirring occasionally with a long wooden spoon.
3. Turn off the heat and leave to cool down a little.
4. Pot into warm sterilized jars.
5. Label and date the jars.

This year's apple chutney #1

Everything is happening a month early. The plums were harvested 3 weeks ago, and the apples are falling on the ground. It's not even half way through August.

Happily for me this means I can make lots of chutney, which will be perfect for Christmas presents.

This is a variation on apple #2 from last year, which I think was the tastiest of last year's chutneys - I suspect because of the cider vinegar. I used malt vinegar in this recipe because I didn't have cider vinegar and was too lazy to go to Sains for some. The other changes were also based on what was to hand. The apples came from Lisa's apple tree and are eaters, so the chutney will be on the sweet side. I ran out of apples but found one that had fallen from a tree lying on the ground round the corner.

Apple chutney ingredients

• 1.5 kg eating apples
• 250g cooking apples
• 400g raisins
• 150g dates
• 1kg soft dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon crushed died chillies
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 double thumb-sized piece root ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon allspice berries
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Juice 1/2 lemon

 How to make apple chutney

1. Put everything in a preserving pan, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. 
2. Continue to cook until thick - count on this taking between 2 and 4 hours
3. Turn off the heat and leave to cool down a little.
4. Pot into warm sterilized jars.
5. Label and date.

Since every jar of chutney looks pretty much the same as the next, I haven't bothered with a photo.

For my own reference, this was made on 16 August 2014.

Apple chutney x2

I have almost given up blogging, it's been so long since I posted anything. Yesterday, I almost gave up cooking, having experienced several culinary disasters:

1. Over-set chutney. Yes, let me just say that again: over-set chutney. How on earth did that happen? I have never, ever over-set chutney before in my life. And, according to Google, neither has anyone who has ever published anything on the web. But the apple, chilli and ginger batch I made on 1st October has over-set, bearing an striking reseblance to jam.

2. Over-set crab apple jelly. Crab apple jelly seems like more faff than its worth. Cleaning, boiling, straining then cooking. Never again. Jams are not for me. I am sticking to chutney from now on (which I will NOT over-set again).


3. Mutton curry without the mutton. I left the mutton in the fridge instead of the freezer for too long and had to throw it out (it went to the foxes, not the bin). But by this time I'd made the curry sauce, so I ended up with a sauce-only curry sauce

On a more positive note, here's a chutney recipe that does appear to have worked. The apples for this one were courtesy of Tanya's friend Diana. 

Apple chutney #2 ingredients

• 2kg peeled and cored apples, cut into smallish chunks
• 5 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 1 litre cider vinegar
• 500g sultanas
• 1kg soft brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 chilli, chopped finely
• 1 double thumb-sized piece root ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon allspice berries
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Juice 1/2 lemon

How to make apple chutney

1. Put everything in a preserving pan, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. 
2. Continue to cook until thick, but not too thick.
3. Turn off the heat and leave to cool down a little.
4. Pot into warm sterilized jars.
5. Label before you forget what it is.

Apple chutney #3 ingredients

• 2.5Kg apples
• 7 onions (just under 1kg)
• 800g raisins
• Approx 1.25 litres malt vinegar
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon hot paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds 

Make the chutney as for Apple chutney #2 

Plum chutney

Polish fruit picker (Stasio)

Yesterday Barnaby and Stasio helped Ollie harvest the cherry plums from our tree and so today is chutney making day. This year we have a bumper crop, so I'm quadrupling the recipe. I'm also mixing and matching several recipes as I want to include plums, cooking apples, Spanish onions and raisins. This means that, according to one recipe, I have accidentally added double the amount of sugar I need, although, according to another recipe, I should be OK. I am also slightly dubious about the amount of vinegar I am supposed to use, so have reduced this. I may end up with burnt, sour toffee. Ollie asked what I'd do if it turned out wrong. My response was that Kerry will eat it anyway.

Hubble bubble

Plum chutney ingredients

• 4kg plums, de-stoned
• 1.4 kg cooking apples
• 1.1kg Spanish onions
• 1.4kg raisins
• 1.4kg soft brown sugar
• 1.25 litres cider vinegar

Chutney spice mix ingredients

2 cinnamon sticks
6 dried red chillies

6 teaspoons allspice berries

2 teaspoons cloves

6 teaspoons coriander seeds

4 teaspoons black peppercorns

How to make plum chutney

1. As you de-stone the plums, chop them roughly.
   This is an extremely tedious job that takes forever. I have tried leaving the stones in and removing after the chutney is cooked, but, on balance, I think de-stoning before cooking is quicker. At least you can do this while you sit in front of the TV.
2. Put the stoned plums in a very large preserving pan. 
3. Peel, core and chop the apples and add to the pan. Don't worry if they go brown before they get in the pan as everything will turn to a brown mush as it cooks anyway.
4. Peel and roughly chop the onions and add to the pan.
5. Add the dried chilies and cinnamon sticks to the pan.
6. Place the rest of the spices in a piece of muslin and tie together. Add this to the pan.
7. Bring everything to the boil, stirring occasionally to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning.
8. Reduce to a gentle simmer, and cook till thick, stirring regularly to prevent burning. 
9. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN STIRRING! The chutney will be very hot and have a tendency to bubble. It’s actually a bit like stirring a cauldron. I usually reduce the temperature right down before giving it a stir to avoid getting splashed with the boiling goo.
10. Once the chutney is thick, leave it to cool and pot into sterilized jars while still warm, remembering to fish out the cinnamon sticks and dried chilies.
    Sterilizing jars is easy - if you have a dishwasher then just put them through a cycle and leave in the dishwasher till dry. If you don't, like me, just wash in very hot soapy water, rinse in hot water and then place upside down in a cold oven. Switch it on and heat to 100 degrees, then switch off. Leave the jars in the oven till you are ready to use them. Wash lids in hot soapy water, rinse, and leave on a rack to dry.

Toil and trouble

The chutney should take about 3 or 4 hours to reach the right consistency. However, I started cooking mine at about 1pm today and it is still not ready at 6.30pm. In fact, I don't think it has reduced at all in the last hour. Maybe it was a mistake to add that extra 250ml vinegar halfway through. I think I need to increase the temperature or I will be up all night. 



I still have 2 large bowls of stoned fruit to use up and another bowl yet to be stoned. I think the jam I intend to make will have to wait for tomorrow night. I found a recipe which involves sprinkling the sugar over the plums and leaving overnight. I have no idea what this is supposed to do but think I will give it a go.

Potting chutney is a sticky business that takes longer than you think. Invariably some dribbles down the site of the jars which need wiping clean before labelling and storing. Leave the chutney for at least a month, longer if possible, before eating. I actually don't give out unmature chutney anymore as some people don't wait till its ready before they eat it (you know who you are).