This week I have been a busy little bee in the kitchen. We are over run with Courgettes, Runner Beans and after my blight scare last week, where I cut off the offending blackened stems, I was left with lots of unripened tomatotes. (Thankfully I dont think I have blight, but that's another post!).
We have a wonderful book on preserves which my lovely sister in law, Helen, bought Dan for a birthday present. It's a River Cottage Handbook and is written by Pam Corbin, the jam expert.
The book has great recipes for all types of Jams, Jellies, Chutneys, Pickles, Drinks etc. The Glutney recipe is brilliant, you can through any vegetable glut in and (fingers crossed) it will turn out tasty.
Recipe:
1kg overgrown courgettes, unpeeled but cut into dice no bigger than 1cm (discard seeds from really large marrows)
1kg red or green tomatoes, scalded, skinned and roughly chopped
1kg cooking peeled and diced
500g onions, peeled and diced (I used 250g)
500g sultanas or raisins (I used 250g)
500g light brown sugar (I used granulated sugar)
750ml white wine or cider vinegar, made up to 1 litre with water (I used half of each)
1–3 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp salt
for the spice bag
1 thumb-sized nugget of fresh or dried ginger, roughly chopped
12 cloves (I used 12 all spice berries)
12 black peppercorns
1 generous tsp coriander seeds
a few blades of mace
(1 dried chilli whole)
Put the vegetables and fruit in a large, heavy-based pan with the sultanas or raisins, sugar, vinegar and water, chilli flakes and salt.
Make up the spice bag by tying all the spices in a square of muslin or cotton. Add the spice bag to the pan, pushing it into the middle.
Heat the mixture gently, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar, and bring slowly to the boil. Simmer for 2–3 hours, uncovered, stirring regularly to ensure it does not burn on the bottom of the pan. The chutney is ready when it is rich, thick and reduced, and parts to reveal the base of the pan when a wooden spoon is dragged through it. If it starts to dry out before this stage is reached, add a little boiling water.
Pot up the chutney while still warm (but not boiling hot) in sterilised jars with plastic-coated screw-top lids (essential to stop the vinegar interacting with the metal). Leave to mature for at least 2 weeks – ideally 2 months – before serving.
Very excited! Last week, Charley over at Flora and Purl Blog posted about her Chutney, so we have decided to do a little allotment chutney swap! I love Charley's blog, her photography and her lovely family. So it will be great to receive a jar of hers, maybe we will be swapping jars of our produce in years to come.Labels: allotment, book, recipe
