Ah! I didn't see you there. Winter is a time of dark flavours and a bit of spice
and it's also game season so I like to have in store preserves best suited for roasted meats
and pies. This is my favourite chutnee recipe. For this recipe you will need...
First I'm going to prepare my apples. The apples need to be peeled and cored,
or you can peel them and cut around the core.
You need to make sure they are chopped roughly the same size so they will cook evenly.
You can use any eating apple but sharper ones are best
like a Pitmarston Pineapple or a Ribston Pippin. I am using Russets.
The peels and core can go to the pigs. And now I'm going to sprinkle my apples with salt.
This will not only stop them going brown but will draw out some of the moisture.
Ideally this will then be left overnight but a good
few hours will do if you haven't got the time.
Now that my apples have rested it's time to prepare the rest of my ingredients.
I'm going to peel my ginger and then mince it.
Slice my chilli
Add in the sugar
Sultanas
Raisins
Mustard seed
My vinegar
and juice a lemon
And now this is ready to go to the stove to be cooked.
Chutnees are from India. This recipe is certainly not from Britain.
It says you should leave the chutnee out in the sun every day for a month.
I'd quite like the sun to be out every day for a month. Here in England we really enjoy Indian
flavours. Even our Worcestershire Sauce started off as an Indian relish. This chutnee will need
to be stirred for about three quarters of an hour so I think I'll leave that to Mary-Ann.
Mary-Ann has done a good job making sure this hasn't stuck to the bottom.
You should never let your chutnee cool in a copper pan.
It can turn green and you risk verdigris poisoning.
I'm now going to put it in this jar.
These have made life much easier as they seal really nicely.
If you haven't got a jar you can always use cork and wax or what I grew up with:
a pig's bladder stretched over the top of a jar.
Chutnee is best after it's been kept for a while
so I'm going to put this in the dry larder for about a year. Don't forget to label it!
There we are. English Chutnee.