Sunday 1 September 2013

Chutney and Pickles

I know, we're a bit obsessed with preserving at the moment - I'm sure we're smelling rather sweet and vinegar-y too. I certainly know our flat is!
We picked this lot from the plot this morning - the silverskin onions are currently soaking in brine prior to being pickled tomorrow. Some of the courgettes will go to work but some are for dinner for the next two days as well as for the chutney. There are also a few leaves of perpetual spinach from fellow plotholder Geoff (Thanks Geoff).
Yesterday we made some runner bean chutney - the same recipe that we always use, as it's so delicious.
And today we've been making tomato and courgette chutney, with a different recipe - based on the one I found here, but with a few adjustments. This is the ingredients list we've used and we just put it all in the pan and cook until it thickens:
  • 455g courgettes
  • 284g onions
  • 284g tomatoes
  • 270g Demerara sugar
  • ¼ pint malt vinegar
  • ¼ pint pickling vinegar
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • ½ tspn paprika
  • ½ tspn salt
 It's smelling delicious as it simmers away so hopefully it'll taste just as good! We'll find out at Christmas.

This is the stage we figured it was ready - it's always a bit tricky; The spoon leaves a clear path through the mixture until the liquid slowly covers it again.





Here's the end result, along with the pickled silverskins and the two types of chutney. The courgette and tomato is far right, with the runner bean in the middle - mmm

3 comments:

  1. We usually make pickles outdoors due to the vinegary fumes. They can take your breath away.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it can be rather over-powering but at least it was warm enough at the weekend so we could have the windows open.

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  2. Looks yummy. I always wonder if there is a limit to the amount of chutney one couple can eat and then I remember the plot boxes at Xmas. Ha ha. We`ve actually run out of vinegar today.

    ReplyDelete

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