Plum Chutney

I used up the huge amount of plums I found myself in possession of by making plum chutney, I used this recipe:

ingredients

makes about 2.5 kg (5 1/2 lb)

450 g (1 lb) sugar
1 litre (1 3/4 pt) malt vinegar
450 g (1 lb) apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 .4 kg (3 lb) plums, stoned and quartered
450 g (1 lb) onions, skinned and chopped
225 g (1/2 lb) stoned raisins, chopped
225 g (1/2 lb) carrots, peeled and sliced
25 g (1 oz) salt
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground cloves
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground cinnamon
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground ginger
10 ml (2 level tsps) ground allspice

method

1. Put the sugar and most of the vinegar in a pan and bring slowly to the boil.

2. Add the fruit and vegetables.

3. Blend the salt and spices with the remaining vinegar and stir into the ingredients in the pan.

4. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until of a thick consistency, with no excess liquid.

5. Pot and cover.

If you don't like chopping vegetables I wouldn't recommend it, the preparation alone took nearly 2 hours, though I was using really small plums so it took forever to remove the stones.

It also took about 4 hours to cook down to the right consistency, but chutney lasts for up to a year so it will be worth it in the end. This recipe also doesn't mention you have to leave the chutney in the jar for a couple of months before you can use it as the taste of the vinegar has to mellow.

And Happy Birthday to Mick Jagger, he's 66 today.

Click Rainbow squid below to see my complete tutorial on making big batches of chutney and other pickles.

Plums!

I digress from my series of posts about the death of Hendrix to write about Plums, yes that's right Plums. I discovered the fruits dropping on my boyfriends lawn and rotting were plums so I picked as many as I could, now I have tons and have to do something with them before they all go off, so this afternoon I'm going to try and make plum chutney. If it works well I'll post pictures and the recipe I used.


Update - I made the Plum Chutney, well it's still boiling and has been for an hour and a half, it took nearly two hours just to chop the vegetables and stone the plums. Now I'm just worried I won't have enough glass jars to put it all in, and you apparently can't eat chutney for at least a month as the vinegar tastes too strong so I can't even force my friends and family to eat what I can't get into jars.