A journey of discovery - Classic Apple Date & Walnut Chutney

I've never been a fussy eater, and my family will testify to the fact that as a child I would always greedily finish every scrap of whatever was put on the plate in front of me.  And then ask for seconds.  But there are just a very few exceptions to this - I have always had a dislike and a completely irrational fear of 3 things:  baked beans, tomato ketchup and chutney. Especially chutney.  I had never actually tried it, but just looking at a jar of something worryingly brown and alien with little cubes of unidentified vegetables that's neither liquid or solid and both sweet and pungently vinegary freaked me out so much that I was scared to have any where near my plate. 

But a few years ago this all changed.  Melissa and I had our very first vegetable patch, and that September we were overrun with so many delicious homegrown courgettes and green tomatoes we didn't know what to do with them.  Not wanting to waste our lovely produce we'd spent so long nurturing, I reluctantly had a stab at the Courgette and Tomato Glutney recipe in the River Cottage Preserves Handbook.  This may just have been one of those rare occasions where I was wrong.  (Yes Melissa - you now have that in writing for all to see!)  Of course using our homegrown vegetables made it extra special, but this recipe was really good and I was converted. We gave jars away as Christmas presents and have done the same every year since.

For a while I thought we only ever needed this recipe - it wasn't too sweet or too acidic, just a really good balance of lovely flavours.  And to be honest, I was still a bit scared to try another recipe, in case my irrational fear came back.  But last year I discovered a fantastic recipe for Apple Date and Walnut Chutney.  And it might just go one better than the River Cottage recipe - sorry Hugh!

With 3 carrier bags of apples from my dad's garden in need of preserving I thought this would be the perfect chutney to add to our collection for the next Brighton Bakery stall (at The Lantern Fayre on The Level on 8th October - more details soon!).   For those of you that can't make it down to Brighton to buy a jar, I thought I would share my recipe, inspired by this one by West Ealing Abundance.

Oh and be warned - the peeling and chopping does take ages (as with all chutneys) so make sure you have several hours free and plenty of patience to make this, I promise you won't be disappointed with the result.  This recipe can always be halved if you'd prefer less chopping!

My Classic Apple Date & Walnut Chutney Recipe
Makes 15 x 340g jars

6 large brown onions, chopped
2.4kg cooking apples, peeled, cored & diced (prepared weight)
800g dates, chopped
250g walnuts, chopped
630ml cider vinegar
240ml balsamic vinegar
250g soft brown or demerara sugar
8tsp mustard seeds
8tsp finely grated fresh root ginger
450ml water
a little oil

1. Start by preparing and chopping the apples, onions and dates - these should be chopped fairly small and evenly - you want them all about the same size.
2. Grease a very large maslin pan with a little oil and add the cider and balsamic vinegar, the sugar, mustard seeds, ginger and water.  Stir over a low heat (without boiling) until the sugar dissolves into the liquid.
3.  Add the remaining ingredients (apples, onions, dates and walnuts) and give it a good stir with a long wooden spoon.  Turn the heat up to medium and bring to the boil.  This will take a while as there is lots in the pan - stir it every so often and liquid will start to rise and it will start to bubble.
4. Simmer the mixture very gently, for about an hour and a half, until thick and pulpy, but with the chunks of apple still clearly discernable.  Stir the mixture occasionally, more frequently near the end to ensure it doesn't catch and burn on the bottom of the pan.  You'll know when it's done when no excess liquid remains and you can draw your spoon across the bottom of the pan and reveal the base for a couple of seconds. 
5. Pour into warm, sterilised jars while still hot and cover immediately.  Mature for 2 months to develop the flavours before eating.  The chutney will keep well for a year.

Here's how mine went, step by step:

All the ingredients filled my maslin pan nearly to the brim!

After an hour it has reduced and turn a lovely deep colour

It took 10 attempts to take this picture revealing the bottom of the pan!

Do I really have to wait 2 months to try this? :o(

I hope you try this recipe out, it's a real winner.  I'd love to hear how yours turns out if you do!

Brighton Bakery launches a new line of preserves

Now that we've done a few market stalls at various events we realise just how much work goes into making all our cakes and sweet treats with a huge bakeathon the day before.  After the last stall at Nigel's Eco Market, Melissa and I decided it would be a good idea to diversify the products we offer that have a longer shelf life than our cakes.  And we came up with the cracking idea of making a small range of delicious preserves. 

As is typical with us, we concocted our cunning plan rather late in the season, missing out on much of the summer bounty and so there are many fruits that are just not available locally or would simply cost to much to turn into lovely jam.  Sorry Melissa - no strawberry jam this year.

But one very cost effective seasonal fruity offering we were just in time for was my annual raid of the fruit trees in my dad's back garden!  He kindly donated several carrier bags full of damsons and three kinds of apples, plus some plums and raspberries and he even helped us forage some sloes and blackberries from the woods behind his house.  Fan-fruity-tastic - thanks Dad.

Over the last 2 weeks Melissa and I have been busy peeling, chopping, simming, stirring, rolling boiling and potting nearly 40 jars worth (so far) of lovely preserves, including Damson & Sloe Gin Jam, Tangy Russet Apple & Honey Jam, Plum Jam, Apple Date & Walnut Chutney and Plum & Russet Mincemeat which will make some delicious mince pies this Christmas.

Apple Date & Walnut Chutney

If you're feeling frugal or fancy a spot of jamming on a rainy day I can heartily recommend our preserving bible, the fantastic River Cottage Preserves handbook, where we found the recipes for the Plum Jam and the Plum and Russet Mincemeat.  I have made both of these a few times and they are great recipes to start off with as they are quite straightforward.  But we've gone a step further and developed a couple of recipes of our own which will make an appearance at our next stall.  If you can't wait until then to buy a jar then you can get out your pinny and make your own by following one of the recipes I'll be posting shortly.

Happy jamming xx

Apple crumble in a muffin

Not for the first time in our kitchen, and you can bet your bottom dollar it won't be the last, I have persuaded Melissa that I have to do some baking, under the thinly veiled excuse that something or other needs using up.  In fact, even as we speak that caster sugar in the cupboard is looking like it's on it's last legs... ;o) 

As it happens, we did have some lovely British Bramley apples that were crying out to be used in a delicious teatime treat.  I really love a good old apple crumble and wanted to experiment to see if I could translate my traditional favourite pud into a muffin which can be eaten without needing the Sunday roast beforehand.  Actually, as I write this I recall that it has been known that my dad is fond of eating crumble for breakfast, but maybe that's just him...

And if I do say so myself, these made up muffins are really rather good.

Apple Crumble Muffins Recipe (makes 12 big ol' muffins)

150g plain white flour
150g plain wholemeal flour
1 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
190g golden caster sugar
210ml milk
1 large egg, beaten
100g butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
about 400g bramley apples

For the crumble topping:
15g cold butter, diced
25g plain flour
15 demerara sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line a muffin tin with cases.
2. Make the crumble topping by rubbing together the cold butter and flour until it looks like couscous, then stir in the demerara sugar.  Squish it together a little to form nuggety lumps and set aside.
3. Peel and core the apples then chop into pieces the size of small blackberries.
4. In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients, and in a separate bowl whisk together the milk, egg and melted butter.  Add the wet mixture into the dry and stir until nearly combined, then add the chopped apples.  Try not to overmix as this will make the muffins rubbery.
5. Spoon the mixture evenly into the lined muffin tin and top each with a generous sprinkling of the crumble mix.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden. 

The muffins will keep for a couple of days in an airtight tin or you could freeze half the batch to keep them longer.  Enjoy x

PS if you wanted to try apple and blackberry muffins use 150g blackberries and 250g Bramley apples and substitute the cinnamon with the zest of 1 lemon.  You could also add 25g chopped pecans or walnuts to the crumble topping for extra texture.