Friday 2 February 2007

More Plums!

Lovely neighbour gave us yet more plums at the beginning of the week. Rather than make another batch of jam, I saw a recipe for plum chutney in Julie le Clerc's Cafe Collection. I remember my mum making chutney when I was younger - though she used to make Green Tomato Chutney to use up huge yields of tomatoes from our garden. My sister would dread going home after school if we knew she was making chutney, as she hated the smell!!
I was really pleased with the plum chutney, though I had to let it simmer a lot longer than the recipe advises to get it thick enough. Maybe the particular variety of plum has a low amount of pectin?

Spicey Plum Chutney
Makes about 8 cups (2 litres)

2kg dark plums, stoned and chopped
500g onions, peeled and diced
5 cups brown sugar
4 cups malt vinegar
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground cloves
  • Place all ingredients into a preserving pan or large saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.
  • Boil gently, stirring frequently, for about one and a half hours or until chutney is thick and jam like (as I said above, I needed to do this for much longer - probably about three hours, to get the desired consistency).
  • Ladle into hot sterilised jars, and seal well.

No comments: