Chutney Tuesday - Cherry Tomato Chutney

 

It's been so long since I posted a chutney recipe but with the last batch of cherry tomatoes from our garden threatening to go to waste, what other options did I have?

First I picked over the tomatoes to make sure no bad ones slipped through.

Ingredients:

3tbls oil

1.5kg cherry tomatoes ( halved)

2 bramley apples finely diced

500g red onion sliced

4 cloves garlic crushed 

500mls red wine vinegar

3 tbls Worcestershire sauce

4tbls balsamic vinegar

150g dark soft brown sugar

350g granulated sugar

200g sultanas 2tsp mixed spice

1tsp celery salt

2 Bay leaves.

Instructions

Heat the oil and fry onion and garlic until softened. Add tomatoes and cook for a few minutes add all of the other ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring regularly. Once reduced to a jam like consistency store in sterilised jars.

Chutney Tuesday: Christmas Chutney 2014

 I thought it was about time that I cracked on with a chutney for christmas. I made one last year that was nice but I decided to refine it a bit, and make a much larger quantity.

 Ingredients
6 tbls veg oil
1kg white onions - diced
4 Bramley Apples - peeled and diced
2 Parsnips - peeled and very finely diced
5 fresh figs - base and stalk removed and diced
zest and juice of one large orange
400g frozen cranberries (I would have used fresh if they had any)
500g dried mixed fruit
500g dark soft brown sugar
375 ml sherry vinegar
125 cider vinegar
spices:
10 cloves- I just pinched of the heads and crush them with my fingers and dispose of the stalks
2 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp mustard seeds (whole)
1/2 grated nutmeg

optional - a large slug of brandy

method
Heat oil, add onions and spices and cook until soft.
Remove from heat and add all of the other ingredients (except brandy).
Stir well and return to heat. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for approx 40 mins or until parsnip softened. Stir regularly.
Uncover, add brandy and simmer for approx 20 mins until reduced to a chutney consistency.
Spoon into sterilied jars and seal. Makes approx 3 to 3.5 litres.

Chutney Tuesday: plum and apricot

Today's plum chutney is again based heavily on a chutney on bbc good food. However I wanted to bulk it out so I've added a lot more onions. I've also changed a few other bits and bobs.

Ingredients
5 tbls veg oil
1200g plum. chopped finely (leave skins on)
4 medium red onions (sliced finely)
1 kg white onions (diced finely)
250g dried apricot (roughly chopped using oiled knife)
350ml red wine vinegar
100ml sherry vinegar
500g dark soft brown sugar
1.5 tblsp ground ginger
1.5 tblsp mustard seeds
1.5 tblsp ground cumin
1.5 tblsp smoked paprika
1.5 tblsp crushed chillies
large pinch salt

heat oil and add red onions and cook until soft.
add diced white onions and spices and cook until soft.
add all other ingredients, stir well. bring to boil and simmer with lid on for 10 mins.
uncover and simmer until colour becomes deep red and consistency is jammy.
stir frequently during cooking.

spoon into sterilised jars while hot and seal.
makes 16-17 190ml jars (about 3.25 litres)

Chutney Tuesday: Spicy Pear and Fig Chutney

It's been a while since I did a Chutney Tuesday, but I really fancied making some today. I was going for massive quantity, as it's really useful to have these in for christmas gifts, etc. If you want to make it in smaller quantities it will work just as well.

ingredients:
4tbls veg oil
approx 2.5 kg pears (before prepararation)
1 kg onions
4 fresh figs
2 large red chillis (just use one if you don't want it so spicy)
4 cloves garlic
3tsp ground coriander
1tsp ground ginger
1 pinch salt
500g dark soft brown sugar
350ml cider vinegar

Peel pears and chop into very small pieces. Finely dice onions. Slice chillis finely, crush garlic. Chop fig- remove stem and base and chop into small pieces/

Heat oil, add ginger, coriander, garlic and chilli. Cook for a minute. Add onion and cook until softened stirring regularly.
Add pear and fig, stir well and cook for a few minutes.
Add vinegar, sugar and salt and bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 30 mins, then uncover and simmer until jammy in appearance (about 25mins)
Whilst still hot spoon into hot sterilised jars and seal.

makes 13x190ml jars (about 2.5 litres)

Chutney Tuesday: Carrot Chutney

I decided to make this chutney because I really like Carrots! So I was curious to know whether they would work as a chutney, after a bit of googling I found that Marks and Spencer's used to make a wensleydale and carrot chutney sandwich, which was widely regarded as delicious.... so I knew this had to be my next chutney project.

Ingredients

approx 1400g carrots (weight is before peeling) - grated (this is by far the most time consuming part)

2 onions diced

2 cooking apples finely diced

1 red chilli pepper finely sliced

2 tbls veg oil

1 tsp coriander seeds crushed.

350 ml cider vinegar

250g light muscovado sugar (or whatever brown sugar you have)

heat oil in large pan, add onion & chilli and cook until soft.

Add grated carrot and 2 tbls of the sugar and cook until carrots go limp and start to produce juice.

Add vinegar, rest of sugar and coriander and simmer for 20 mins covered and 20 mins uncovered, stirring frequently.

transfer to sterilised jars, squishing the chutney down in the jars.

makes approximately 1.5 litres of chutney.

Chutney Tuesday: Persimmon, fresh cranberry and chilli chutney

I didn't even know what persimmons were before I bought the ingredients for this chutney. They had them in asda and I thought they looked interesting. A quick google told me that they were a bit like mangoes so I thought they would be good for chutney. They also had fresh cranberries, so I didn't have to make do with dried ones. Then I saw these skinny green chillies and my ingredients were decided.

during the cooking this chutney looks particularly unappetising. it goes a disgusting shade of pale pink and turns scummy, but keep going, it sorts itself out in the end.

Watch this one carefully for burning. I don't know why but this one seemed to try to burn a lot more than other recipes I have done.

makes approx 9-10 200ml jars.
ingredients:

2 tbls veg oil
6 small persimmons (approx 1kg)
fresh cranberries (300g)
1 large cooking apple (420g)
2 white onions (approx 400g)
350ml cider vinegar (350ml is one bottle of asda own brand)
350g white granulated sugar
6 thin green chillies
1 clove garlic
1/2 inch fresh ginger
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin

dice apples, onions and persimmons. finely chop garlic and ginger. finely slice chillies.

fry onions until starting to soften. add chillies, garlic, ginger and spices until thorougly soft.
add persimmon, apple and whole cranberries and cook for 2 more minutes turning all of the time.

add vinegar and sugar, cover and cook for 5 minutes until fruit looks soften abd cranberries split.
cook uncovered until jammy in appearance and a spoon can be dragged through leaving a clear channel (about 30 mins)

transfer to sterlised jars and store.

Chutney Tuesday : Spicy Plum Chutney

This recipe is based heavily on a BBC good food recipe that I used last year, and loved, but felt that it had more liquid than necessary, so I've just tweaked a few things about it.

recipe:

2 tbs veg oil
1kg Plums, finely chopped (inc skins)
4 red onions, finely diced
100g dried cranberries
10 g finely chopped ginger
2 gloves garlic finely chopped
1 small red chilli finely chopped
350 ml redwine vinegar
350g oft light brown sugar
1 tbls mixed spice


Fry onions for 1 minute, add chilli, garlic and ginger and fry until soft.
Add spices plums and cranberries and cook for another minute.
Add sugar and vinegar.
Simmer covered for 10 minutes (this ensures that even hard plums will soften thoroughly.
The simmer uncovered until chutney has a jam-like consistency (30 -40 minutes)
Spoon into sterilised jars whilst still hot, and seal.
makes spprox 7 200ml jars.

Chutney Tuesday: Joanne's Christmas Chutney

This was a highly experimental Chutney recipe, but I think it worked out okay.

I wanted to make a chutney that combined all the flavours and smells that make me think of christmas.

recipe

vegetable oil
3 Parsnips
2 cooking apples
3 medium onions
15g ginger
6 dried figs
100g dried cranberries
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 grated nutmeg
350ml red wine vinegar
100mls dry sherry
250g soft dark brown sugar
zest of half orange


Peel, chop and roast parsnips (coat with oil) at 220 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes until soft but not too browned

meanwhile prepare other ingredients. Peel and chop apple into small chunks. dice onions. finely chop ginger. Chop figs quite small.

add ginger to oil and cook for a minute add onions and cook until soft. add spices and cook for another couple of minutes.

add apples, figs, cranberries, chopped up roast parsnip (will be quite mashy), orange zest, vinegar, sherry and sugar.

bring to boil and cook until jammy. Store in sterilised jars.

Chutney Tuesday: Caramelised onion and Balsamic Tomato Chutney

Another of my own recipes. This is a very rich Chutney, if it's too rich you could increase the ratio of red wine vinegar to balsamic vinegar.

The onions take ages to cook so use your time efficiently by preparing the tomatoes while the onions cook.

I include all of the seeds and juice of the tomatoes (and the seeds of the chilli), but this is personal taste and could be omitted.

recipe:
2 tbls Oil
1 large white onion and 4 red onions (900g in total) sliced
approx 1.5g tomatoes (roughly 15 tomatoes) skinned, chopped into small chunks.
1 chilli pepper finely sliced
100g sundried tomatoes chopped very small
200 ml balsamic vinegar
50 ml re wine vinegar
250 g soft dark brown sugar

Cook onions in a large frying pan, in oil, very slowly over a lowish heat until caramelised (dark and sticky but not burned) this could take up to an hour. when almost done add a tbls of the sugar and cook a bit longer to caramelise further.
meanwhile prepare the tomatoes (use a blanching method to skin)

fry chilli in small amount of oil in large cooking pot, and all of the ingredients, bring to the boil and boil until reduced and jam like, (about 30 minutes)

transfer to sterilised jars and store.

Chutney Tuesday : curried peach and fig chutney

I couldn't resist the good value of the fruit available recently and was inspired to try making a peach based chutney.

recipe
2 tbls vegetable oil
12 peaches, peeled, stoned and chopped
6 small onions (500-550g) diced
4 figs, choped, stems removed
250ml white wine vinegar
250g light soft brown sugar
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp dried crushed chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds (crushed in mortar and pestle)
1 tsp coriander seeds (crushed in mortar and pestle)

fry onion and spices in oil until softened, add all remaining ingredients, bring to the boil and cover, cook (stirring frequently) for about 20 mins or until peaches very soft.
continue to simmer uncovered for approx another 25 mins until has the appearance of jam and a wooden spoon can be dragged throough leaving a channel.
spoon into hot sterilised jars, and apply lids firmly.

makes approx 7 250ml jars

Chutney Tuesday : spicy blackberry and apple chutney

If you are lucky enough to have a blackberry bush locally, here's a recipe to use all of those wonderful free fruit and continue to enjoy them over the coming months,

This is my own recipe and I'm absolutely thrilled with how it turned out, really tasty!

recipe
2 red onions and 1 white onion finely sliced
2 Bramley apples chopped into small chunks
400g blackberries (whole)
3g fresh ginger finely chopped (yes this is a tiny amount - it happened to be all I had)
1 clove garlic finely chopped
1 red chilli finely sliced including seeds
1tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbls oil
250 ml red wine vinegar
250g dark soft brown sugar.

Fry onion, garlic, chilli and ginger in oil, until softened. Add apples, blackberries, cinnamon, mustard seeds, vinegar and sugar.
Stir well bring to simmer and slowly increase to a boil, cook uncovered for approx 25 mins, stirring regularly to ensure it doesn't burn, until you can drag a wooden spoon through and it doesn't fill immediately. The appearance is similar to blackberry jam.
Transfer to hot sterilised jars. ( I just run them through hot cycle, top rack, of dishwasher) store in cool dark place for as few weeks, or as long as you want. Flavours develop with time, and should keep for ages)