Friday 11 November 2011

Christmas Chutney

This year, I am hoping to replicate the success off the Xmas hampers I gave to family and friends 2 years ago. I spent hours upon hours in the kitchen, with a rather large tummy bump, (7 mths pregnant!) stirring, chopping and blitzing ingredients together to make a perfect batch of Christmas treats.

The contents of this year's hampers are still 'work in progress' but ideas so far are:
- Christmas Chutney; perfect accompaniment to cheeses and cold cuts. Done, dusted. Jarred.
- Basil pesto; delicious stirred into pasta or smothered on warm ciabatta. A sure cert especially with all our Italian family.
- Fudge; testing out different flavour combinations at the moment...
- Shortbread; cut into festive shapes. A great way to get my 5yo involved
- Something involving stem ginger...there's alot of love for ginger among my family & friends!

Back to the chutney. As of yesterday, these are cooked, jarred and maturing away so they are perfect to eat at Christmas. I've always made a Christmas chutney with apples and cranberries. The first recipe I ever used was from my highly trusted BBC Good Food.  I then made other versions which included plums, then figs. This year the base for my chutney was taken from Hugh's River Cottage on Channel 4.  I made a few changes to suit my own taste, which include adding fresh cranberries & cinnamon. I also omitted cardamom pods as I'm not a fan.  My exact recipe is detailed here.

My batch made some 18 jars!  Feel free to halve the quantities or play around with what suits you.

Ingredients:
Weighing out apples
  • 1kg onions, chopped
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1kg bramley apples, peeled and chopped into large-ish chunks
  • 1kg eating apples (Cox's, Braeburns, Pink Lady etc),peeled and chopped into small-ish chunks
  • 1 litre cider vinegar
  • 800g demerera sugar
  • 250g dried figs
  • 250g walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 250g dried cranberries
  • 200 fresh cranberries (or use frozen, defrost first)
  • Zest & juice of 2 large oranges
  • 200ml port
  • 25g root ginger, grated
  • 12 cloves
  • 2 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

In a very large saucepan, heat the oil and sweat the onions for a few minutes.

Add the apples, sugar and vinegar and stir to dissolve. Bring to the boil and add the dried fruit, herbs & spices. Add the orange zest and juice and the port.

Chutney Cooking

Cook for a good hour on a simmer until the liquid has reduced significantly, stirring occasionally. Add the fresh cranberries and the walnuts and continue to cook for another 30-45 minutes.

Pour into washed, sterilised jars whilst hot and place lids on.

Leave to mature for a few weeks so it is perfect for Christmas! I'm already dreaming about tucking into the chutney on Christmas day along with my favourite cheeses...

The finished chutney!

2 comments:

  1. there's alot of love for ginger among my family & friends! Yes. A very uner-used flaour.

    ReplyDelete
  2. nhiều món ăn ngon quá. cứ đồ ăn ngon là thích rồi
    giới thiệu tới các bạn món ăn bổ dưỡng nhất hiện nay
    yến sào yến chưng sẵn nguyên chất nhiều dinh dưỡng vừa thơm ngon vừa tốt cho sức khỏe. Tổ yến có lượng protein lớn và dưỡng chất mang lại nhiều lợi ích cho sức khỏe
    tham khảo: yến tinh chế

    ReplyDelete