Monday 20 September 2010

The First On In The Last One Gone

Woo-hoo, it's chutney recipe number 7! I almost managed a whole week of blogging. How exciting! Future posts will be about something else now, promise.

Since this is my last chutney blog for a while, it only seems appropriate that it should be the first chutney I ever made. So this is a recipe & conjured up shortly after moving to the House at the Top of the Bloody Great Hill, which had two overgrown apple trees in the garden (one had fruit, flowers & leaves on it at the same time every spring. I know enough about mythology to proclaim it The Tree Of No Eating*). The name is a little misleading, as the chilli just gives the chutney a little warmth, though if you want to add more chillis, go for it!

Chilli Apple Chutney

1kg (about 5) apples, peeled, cored & roughly chopped
200g raisins
500g brown sugar
500ml cider vinegar
2 red chillies, finely chopped
50g crystallized ginger (or you can use stem ginger), chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
A few grates of fresh nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Throw everything into a large pan. Bring to the boil & then simmer for about an hour until the mixture thickens.

Not everyone is as into cinnamon as I am, so you could substitute the cinnamon & allspice for black mustard seed, mixed spice or 5 spice powder.

*In mythology posessing a bough bearing fruit, flowers & leaves grants access to the underworld. And I've seen enough Bruce Campbell films to know what that kind of thing leads to...

2 comments:

Shaheen said...

My dear friend, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your recipes for the chutney. In fact I think you should write a book on chutney's and even designing your own imaginative labels (with good humour).

I'm going to be making a chilli inspired apple chutney (minus the ginger) this weekend too. I would have made it earlier in the week, but I had no jam jars, just collected some this afternoon. So that is part of my cooking schedule this long weekend (yes Monday is a Bank holiday here) and I'm so looking forward to it.

A house on bloody great hill, now I would be afraid driving up there. I'm always afraid my handbrake will fail on me.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend.

littleblackfox said...

Heh, the House on the Bloody Great Hill was the steepest street in Sheffield where we lived (at the top!) for 8 years. Sebastian Coe used to run up it when in training.

I'm really glad that you've enjoyed the chutney recipes. I thought chutney making season was pretty much over for me (except for some post-hallowene pumpkin chutney) but my inlaws have given me 3 big bags of apples, so the weekend will be spent making apple chutney too! (and MikeyFox will be having a go at making cider too)

Have a lovely weekend, dear friend!