I’ve been having a chutney-making fest – it’s my first time (don’t know what took me so long) – and I realise that all this time I’ve had this weird prejudice, putting home-made chutney together in my head with people like this this -very odd really, because I’ve always devoured it…
There’s a generosity about making chutney that I love. The whole point of preserving is anything is to avoid wasting anything…it usually comes from having a glut of something – You don’t make something like this in small quantities, so there’s always a bounty of it. It begs to be shared and given away.
I had a big pile of un-ripe tomatoes and more jalapeno chillis than even I could handle. The chillis were bothering me badly and I briefly flirted with this idea of salsa and stuffed peppers, but In the end I got predictably lazy and decided to combine the tomatoes and the chillis so I went browsing to find out chutney secrets. I found this wonderful recipe on the sumptuous and stylish website that is Fennel and Fern and adapted it to include my piles of jalapenos.
It couldn’t be easier:
Jalapeno and green tomato chutney
Green tomatoes (6 or 7 big ones or lots of small ones), roughly chopped
Jalapenos or mild-ish chillis (I used about 12 big ones), roughly chopped
4 red onions, sliced
4 apples, cubed
450g muscovado sugar, (I didn’t have enough so I used half muscovado and half demerara)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
sultanas – a couple of handfuls
400ml cheap malt vinegar
2 tablespoons good balsamic vinegar
A knob of butter
Method
Heat the butter over a medium heat and add the sugar and sliced onions. Cook them until they’re golden and soft. Now add everything else except the vinegar and cook it for a few minutes, just to soften, stirring occasionally. Add the malt vinegar and simmer for half an hour. Then add the balsamic and cook some more until the mixture is soft and thick and gloopy. Taste and adjust, leave to cool and then put your chutney into sterilised jars.
And on the subject of jars
I bought these glass lever-arm preserving jars (rather expensively) because I fell in love with them. Problem is I want to give away the chutney but keep the jars – such a quandry darling, but as always, there is someone out there who has blogged about it, so here, if you are agonising about such things (which I’m certain you ARE) is canning queen Marisa’s take on preserving jar ettiquete…i do so love the world wide web don’t you?
Oh, and I nearly forgot to tell you….it’s DELICIOUS!
9 Comments
Ha,ha! I was wondering what to do with the hot pepper glut. Now I know.My Pear Preserve (tasteful clear and light) turned into Caramelised fruit jam (heavy and dark and gloupy) my first attempt but feel absurdly proud, will try your recipe and then be all round domestic goddess
I absolutely love kilner jars. We have a cupboard full of empty ones I collected over the years. I now feel re-inspired to start filling them. We used to make rumtopf and give jars of that for Xmas presents all beautifully labelled and done up with ribbons. Sadly I don’t think the recipients liked it all that much although it was incredibly potent and two bits of rum soaked fruit were enough to fail a breathalyser
I love kilner jars too! They are so classic and useful and will last a lifetime. I always ask for the jars back where possible with the incentive that I can refill them and they will receive even more yummy produce x
chutney-licious!
Ursula I love the sound of your pear jam…and I’m glad it survived that dreadful moment of being tasteful and came out the other side intact
Arabella – I have just looked up rumtopf and am wishing i were on your christmas present list
Hannah – I have just given my first jar away five minutes ago, with those exact words. The lucky laydee is a neighbour so if she doesn’t give back I’ll be knocking on her door!
Lotte – i KNOW…utterly YUM!
xxx
Took me a while to succumb to the wonders of chutney. It’s now an annual event that friends, family and passers by look forward to. You’ll never look at an empty jar the same way.
this was my weekend too!
Fennel and Fern chutney, what a way to deal with the green tomatoes – seriously incredible!
http://briebarton.blogspot.com/2010/09/preserved.html
I’m with Hannah for previously offering refills or new samplings.
However I rarely need to even do that these days. My friends and family are so well trained at recycling their own jam jars for me that they often offer to return my chutney filled ones before it’s even out of my hand!
Hey, mr Wayne…it’s true – jars have taken on an entirely new meaning for me these days!
Brie – I love that we were simultaneously chutney-ing….perhaps there are more of us out there…
Nic…I mean to do some serious jar-training!
xxx