Last year I made chutney and gave several jars of it away as presents. A number of people have since asked me for the recipe but, because I am so useless when it comes to putting things in the post I thought it would be best to post it here.
The recipe is based on one from a Sarsons preserving booklet but has been tweaked out of all recognition over the years. The most recent innovation is grating vegetables instead of chopping them (small children tend to object to lumps!) we’ve also increased the cooking time as grating it tends to make it runnier…
Ingredients
450ml malt vinegar
675g green or red tomatoes chopped small
450g cooking apples (peeled and grated)
225g onions (peeled and grated)
2 cloves crushed garlic
7.5ml (1.5 tsp) salt
100g sultanas
2.5cm fresh root ginger (grated)
400g muscavado sugar
1tsp Allspice
1tsp Turmeric
½ tsp mustard powder
5-6 cloves (crushed)
5-6 peppercorns
½ tsp Nutmeg
Method
Place all the ingredients except the sugar in a large saucepan or preserving pan. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes or until the quantity is reduced by 1/3 and the vegetables are soft and pulpy. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved, then simmer, stirring occasionally for about 1 hour until the chutney is a thick pulpy consistency or with no watery liquid noticeable on the top of the chutney.
Pour into warm sterilised jars, seal, label and store for 3 weeks (or 2 months if using green tomatoes) before use.
