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Shan
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 815
Location: South Wales
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 Posted: Mon Nov 16, 09 7:40 am Post subject: Christmas Chutney |
 
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 I am going to make this Delia Christmas chutney recipe today:
Christmas Chutney
This is so-named because it is made with dried fruits, which I always associate with Christmas: prunes, dates and apricots. It's dark, spicy and delicious with cold cuts, pork pies or hot sausages – and it goes splendidly with matured Cheddar.
Makes a 1 litre jar
Ingredients
10 oz (275 g) ready-to-eat dried apricots
12 oz (350 g) pitted ready-to-eat prunes
10 oz (275 g) pitted dates
1 lb (450 g) onions, peeled
1 pint (570 ml) cider vinegar
2 oz (50 g) sea salt
1 level dessertspoon grated fresh root ginger or 1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger
3 oz (75 g) allspice berries
1 lb (450 g) demerara sugar
Equipment
You will also need a 1 litre jar and a small piece of muslin or gauze.
This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Christmas.
Method
The dried fruits and the onions need to be chopped very small, and this can be done in a food processor, or with an old-fashioned mincer, or else with a sharp knife and lots of patience!
When they're all dealt with, put the vinegar in a large saucepan with the salt and the ginger, then tie the allspice berries up in a small piece of muslin, or gauze, very securely so they can't escape and add these to the pan. Bring everything up to the boil, then stir in the chopped dried fruits and onions together with the sugar.
Leave it all to simmer very gently without a lid for about 1˝ hours, or until the chutney has thickened. Stir it from time to time during the cooking period. When it's ready, you will be able to draw a spoon across the surface of the chutney and make a trail that doesn't immediately fill up with surplus vinegar.
In the meantime, the jar should be washed thoroughly in warm soapy water, rinsed, dried and heated in a moderate oven for 5 minutes. Spoon the cooked chutney into the warmed jar, seal well with waxed discs and tight lids, and label as soon as it's cold.
Keep this chutney for 1 month to mature before eating.
Just a word of advice toa nyone who follows this recipe: REDUCE THE SALT by at least half! I had to double up on the rest of the ingredients because it was so salty. |
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jocorless
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 4354
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 09 7:48 am Post subject: |
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It's a nice recipe - I used to make it alot and it really does get better with age however we aren't massive chutney eaters in our house - so I've not made any chutney this year |
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Green Rosie
Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 4165
Location: Calvados, France
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 09 8:15 am Post subject: |
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Sounds lovely but it's rather heavy on expensive dried fruits especially as I have a large amount of green toms I really must chutnify first. |
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Shan
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 815
Location: South Wales
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| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 09 8:20 am Post subject: |
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My tomato plants all ended up withblight so I'm afraid it is expensive dried fruits!  I am going to put it into smaller jars and use some of them as gifts, so it should savemoney on that front! |
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Shan
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 815
Location: South Wales
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 7:46 am Post subject: |
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Just a word of advice toa nyone who follows this recipe: REDUCE THE SALT by at least half! I had to double up on the rest of the ingredients because it was so salty. |
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gorbut
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Posts: 71
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 9:03 am Post subject: |
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Sorry I didn't see this before because I found the same thing. i had some apples ready to make apple chutney so I put those in as well. I only did it a few weeks ago so haven't tasted it yet. I did wonder if the salty taste might reduce with maturing but I shouldn't be having too much salt due to blood pressure problems so should have thought of reducing the salt before I started. |
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Shan
Joined: 13 Jan 2009
Posts: 815
Location: South Wales
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 9:18 am Post subject: |
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The apples should reduce the overall salt per serving content. 
I tasted it halfway through and it was mouth puckeringly salty! I confess I turned the air blue when I had to do up another batch of fruit, etc. |
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Annette H
Joined: 18 Jul 2008
Posts: 148
Location: Worcestershire
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 11:06 am Post subject: |
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I must admit to having made this chutney several times and not even considered how much salt goes in..shameful I know 
Tbh I never taste chutney just bottle it and leave it for 3 months and I have never noticed it being salty, very strange  |
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gorbut
Joined: 03 Sep 2006
Posts: 71
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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It is probable that the salty taste diminishes with maturity then. One good thing about me adding the apples is that it will make the overall chutney cheaper per jar as the apples were from the garden. I will taste some of mine in about two weeks when it will be around a month old. Need to test it before I pretty up some of the jars as presents. |
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Green Rosie
Joined: 13 May 2007
Posts: 4165
Location: Calvados, France
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| Posted: Tue Nov 17, 09 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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Last year I made some green tomato and cucumber chutney that was really salty. One year on it has mellowed greatly and now tastes fine.
But I would not expect the Christmas Chutney to be a salty one so reducing the salt sounds like a good idea IMHO. |
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gil
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 13390
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| Posted: Wed Nov 18, 09 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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I never use salt when I make chutney |
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nats
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 796
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| Posted: Sat Nov 28, 09 4:59 pm Post subject: Re: Christmas Chutney |
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| Shan wrote: |
I am going to make this Delia Christmas chutney recipe today:
Christmas Chutney
This is so-named because it is made with dried fruits, which I always associate with Christmas: prunes, dates and apricots. It's dark, spicy and delicious with cold cuts, pork pies or hot sausages – and it goes splendidly with matured Cheddar.
Makes a 1 litre jar
Ingredients
10 oz (275 g) ready-to-eat dried apricots
12 oz (350 g) pitted ready-to-eat prunes
10 oz (275 g) pitted dates
1 lb (450 g) onions, peeled
1 pint (570 ml) cider vinegar
2 oz (50 g) sea salt
1 level dessertspoon grated fresh root ginger or 1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger
3 oz (75 g) allspice berries
1 lb (450 g) demerara sugar
Equipment
You will also need a 1 litre jar and a small piece of muslin or gauze.
This recipe is taken from Delia Smith’s Christmas.
Method
The dried fruits and the onions need to be chopped very small, and this can be done in a food processor, or with an old-fashioned mincer, or else with a sharp knife and lots of patience!
When they're all dealt with, put the vinegar in a large saucepan with the salt and the ginger, then tie the allspice berries up in a small piece of muslin, or gauze, very securely so they can't escape and add these to the pan. Bring everything up to the boil, then stir in the chopped dried fruits and onions together with the sugar.
Leave it all to simmer very gently without a lid for about 1˝ hours, or until the chutney has thickened. Stir it from time to time during the cooking period. When it's ready, you will be able to draw a spoon across the surface of the chutney and make a trail that doesn't immediately fill up with surplus vinegar.
In the meantime, the jar should be washed thoroughly in warm soapy water, rinsed, dried and heated in a moderate oven for 5 minutes. Spoon the cooked chutney into the warmed jar, seal well with waxed discs and tight lids, and label as soon as it's cold.
Keep this chutney for 1 month to mature before eating.
Just a word of advice toa nyone who follows this recipe: REDUCE THE SALT by at least half! I had to double up on the rest of the ingredients because it was so salty. |
I know i'm a bit late but I'm going to make this tonight. But local co-op only had ground all spice. How much do you reckon I should put in?? Not the full weight I'd guess...!! |
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welsh lamb
Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 381
Location: Gwynedd
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| Posted: Sat Nov 28, 09 5:14 pm Post subject: |
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This was discussed on Delias site a while ago
http://www.deliaonline.com/Community/forum.html?forum_action=5&forum_forumid=3&forum_threadid=2041
A suggestion was :
The usual conversion seems to be that one tablespoon of whole spice (eg berries) is the equivalent of one teaspoon of ground. I weighed out 25g of berries which was 2 tblspns so 75g would be 6 tsp of ground. That seems quite a lot. But remember that the recipe calls for the berries to be tied up in a muslin bundle then removed. Also there's ginger in the recipe so perhaps it depends how spicy you like your chutney. I've not tasted my chutney yet but I did use the 75g of berries - it smelled fantastic while cooking!
But someone else said:
Hi, I don't know if this is too late a reply, but I used 1 1/2 teaspoons in Delia's recipe, and it turned out very well
Not helping much sorry!! |
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nats
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 796
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| Posted: Sat Nov 28, 09 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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That's very helpful - thanks I've put in 8 half teaspoons, slightly heaped (the half teaspoon goes in the neck of the spice jar!) and we'll see how it goes - I generally like lots of spice but that did add up to be half the Swarz jar!! |
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