I recently harvested a tonne (maybe a slight exaggeration) of onions (here and here), so decided to have a go at making some onion chutney. I searched the internet and found a few recipes... they weren't that different so this is what I used:
- 8 of my finest electric onions (you can use any onions)
- 2 of my pickled apache chillies (recipes said to use either a chilli pepper or peppercorns)
- 2 bay leaves
- olive oil (couple of tablespoons)
- 300ml vinegar - half balsamic, half red wine (recipes said you could use pretty much any vinegar or combination)
- 200g brown sugar
This is what I did:
Sliced the onions and added to the pan with the olive oil, chillies and bay leaves.
Cooked until they were soft and had a bit of colour on them (I had expected the insides to be red!)
Added the sugar and vinegar.
Stirred to dissolve the sugar then left it to simmer...
... until it looked like chutney... the times in the different recipes varied from 30 minutes to one and a half hours, mine took closer to the latter.
I fished out the bay leaves and then decanted into warm sterilised jars. The finished result.
Delicious. I'll definitely be making some more of this one.
I finally got round to trying some of my preserves over Christmas and have to say I was extremely pleased with the results...
... tomato & pepper relish really did taste as good as something you could buy in the shops - I can't wait to try it on a burger.
... pickled green tomatoes were quite sweet, I was expecting them to taste more like pickles. They are lovely with both cheese and ham.
... pumpkin chutney was a total delight, I will definitely be making more of that next year.
... pickled cucumbers, once again are just as good as the ones you can buy. I will have to put more effort into growing onions for pickling next year.
The only thing left to try is cucumber and apple chutney, hopefully I will enjoy that just as much as the others.
My bumper harvest of green tomatoes called for a few batches of green tomato chutney.
I based it on a different recipe this time, which didn't use any apples. As per usual I changed it a little bit, so this is what I used:
5 lbs Green Tomatoes
1 lb Onions
1 lb Sultanas
1 oz Root Ginger
Chillies
Spices (black peppercorns, allspice berries, cloves, mustard seed)
1 pint Balsamic Vinegar
1 lb Demerara Sugar
And this is what I did:
Wash and chop the tomatoes and onions; I use a food processor to get them finely chopped. Place in a pan with the sultanas.
Slice the ginger root, chop the chillies in half (the recipe calls for 4 red chillies, but I used a variety that is green when ripe for one batch as I had some in the garden ready to be picked), and place in muslin with the spices. I varied the spice mix each time so didn't necessarily use all of them in each batch. The mix below was allspice berries and cloves.
Secure the muslin parcel and place in the pan with the vinegar.
Bring to the boil. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir occasionally until it has thickened to the right consistency.
Decant into warm sterilised jars and seal.
So, what do you do when a pumpkin peaks far too early?.... turn it into chutney of course.
As per usual, I had to amend the recipe to suit the quantities of my produce so based on the size of the pumpkin this is what I used:
1 1/2 lbs pumpkin
1/2 lb ripe tomatoes (I have plenty of those!)
1/2 lb onions (I used a red onion and some shallots)
2 cloves garlic (small ones)
1/2 pint malt vinegar
2 oz sultanas
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp salt
3/4 lb soft brown sugar (I used dark)
This is what I did:
Chopped up the pumpkin, tomatoes and onion / shallots, crushed the garlic and placed in a pan with the sultanas and half of the vinegar.
Put on a low heat and simmered until the pumpkin was soft... the recipe said this takes about 30 minutes but mine took a bit longer.
Added the salt and spices and simmered some more... the recipe said for 15 minutes, but the pan was getting a bit dry so I simmered for less than that.
Stirred in the sugar and the remaining vinegar, continued cooking until it thickened, stirring occasionally.
Left it to cool a little bit then decanted into warm sterilised jars and sealed.
And the taste? Sweeter than other chutneys I have made so far, but very tasty.
I made another batch of cucumber and apple chutney yesterday, but this time I followed the recipe more closely, so I used
2 lb cooking apples
1 lb shallots
2 lb cucumbers
1 pint malt vinegar
1 lb demerara sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
I also used a food processor, so the ingredients were finely chopped rather than chunky.
I also pickled some more of them a week or so ago.
Cucumber production has slowed down considerably though, so I don't think I'll be preserving any more this year.
Cucumbers keep on coming, so I was back in the kitchen earlier in the week to make a chutney. This is what I used:
1lb cooking apples
1/2 lb shallots
1lb cucumbers
1/2 pint malt vinegar
1/2 lb sugar (was supposed to be demerara, but I didn't have enough so mixed it with granulated)
1 tsp salt (was supposed to be 1/2 tsp - doesn't seem to have affected it though)
1 tsp cayenne pepper (as with salt it was supposed to be 1/2 tsp as I was making half the quantity in the recipe - that's why I'm calling it spicy!)
This is what I did:
Peeled, cored and chopped the apples. Peeled and chopped the shallots (was supposed to be finely, but I'm not very good at fine chopping - maybe I should be calling this chunky & spicy chutney). Deseeded the cucumbers and chopped - once again, should have been finely!
Put it all into a pan with the vinegar and brought to the boil.
Simmered until soft (about 20 minutes)
Added the sugar, salt & cayenne pepper, and stirred to dissolve the sugar.
Left to simmer until it reached chutney consistency (about another hour), stirring every now and again to stop it sticking.
Decanted into warm sterilised jars while it was still hot, and sealed.
It does taste lovely... if you like it spicy!
I'm not totally sure why my first attempt to preserve some of my produce was green tomato chutney... maybe it had something to do with coming to the end of my first growing season and not being convinced that the remaining tomatoes were going to ripen naturally.
So, I searched on the internet and found a recipe for green tomato chutney. It called for:
4lb (2Kg) Green Tomatoes
1lb (450g) Cooking Apples, peeled and cored
1 1/4 lb (575g) Shallots or onions
8oz (225g) Sultanas
1/2oz (15g) Fresh root ginger
8-10 dried red chillies (think I only used 4-5)
1oz (25g) Salt
1lb (450g) Brown Sugar
1 Pint (600ml) Malt Vinegar (I used Balsamic)
and told me to:
Chop the tomatoes, apples, onions and raisins. Alternatively mince these if you prefer smoother chutney (I minced them); Place them in a large saucepan.
Bruise the ginger and chillies: place them between sheets of greaseproof paper and hit them with a rolling pin or mallet. Tie them in a piece of muslin and add the packet to the saucepan.
Stir in all the remaining ingredients and bring the chutney to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the chutney until thickened to the desired consistency.
Stir the preserve frequently during cooking to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Remove the bag of spices before potting the Chutney.
How easy was that?.... Extremely, have a look at the results.
The only thing I was paranoid about was ensuring that the jars were properly sterilised, so that I wouldn't open one a couple of months later and be faced with a layer of fungus. Luckily this wasn't an issue; I made the chutney in September and most of it was consumed around Christmas... yum!
