I must say being good at the art of chutneying runs in the Morris family and my Nan makes excellent ones. Roy definitely takes after her and last year I got to see him in action when we did some fantastic Green Tomato Chutney. This year Roy said he had come up with this good recipe for Plum Chutney so I decided I would steal it as it would make an excellent addition to our Christmas hampers.
I made the chutney at the beginning of November so why I'm only blogging about it now is beyond me. Making the chutney was really fun and easy and I would definitely make it again. Only problem was my biggest pan just wasn't big enough so I had to do half the recipe.
The five jars of chutney I made are now tucked away in our cupboard maturing (apparently the chutney is ready to eat after two months and tastes great for up to two years).
Recipe (makes around 9 jars):
1.2 kg plums
1.4 kg apples
300g prunes
500ml apple cider vinegar
500g brown sugar
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp allspice
Chop the apples and plums up up nice and small and place inside a large pressure cooker or saucepan.
Chop up the prunes and add them to the pan too.
Add the cider vinegar, brown sugar and spices and stir well.
Begin to heat and bring to the boil slowly. Simmer the chutney for around 2 and a half hours. The chutney will start to go all bubbly and sticky and actually a bit scary but will smell ace.
Once cooked, transfer the chutney to jars. Cover the top of the chutney in the jar with a little circle of greaseproof paper. According to Roy you must seal the jars while hot as this creates a vacuum and I guess makes it more yummy.
Leave the jars to mature for at least 2 months and eat within 2 years!
I love making chutney as gifts but I must admit in previous years I've been a bit haphazard as to presentation. Yours look absolutely gorgeous and so festive - you've inspired me to do better :)
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Thanks Seren. I love the idea of home-made gifts but yes I think the presentation is the hardest part. We are yet to get hold of the required bottles for giving out the Sloe Gin... and time is running out! Yikes! xxx
ReplyDeleteThe chutney looks good I love the idea of homemade gifts but unfortunately I decided too late to do much apart from Christmas cards and will be doing my own chocolates.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing the results of the sloe gin,I picked some sloes last week from Chorlton Water Park we were a bit late but still plenty of good berries left.
Hi Gemma,
ReplyDeleteChristmas cards will be fab. Also one year we did Rum Truffles - really easy to make and can be done a couple of days before. We got some petit four cases and put them in there then rolled them in different things like nuts, choc vermicelli etc.
Wow, had no idea you could get sloes from Chorlton Water Park... yet another thing that makes Chorlton ace!!!!!!! Will have to go snap some up next year.
Hope you're well.
Jules X