Rhubarb and date chutney.

And more chutney. This time I've borrowed a recipe from the BBC GoodFood website, adapted to my cheapstake way of thinking. I've swapped red wine vinegar for malt (red wine vinegar sounds way too posh for me), cranberries/raisins for sultanas ('cos I don't care for raisins), fresh ginger for ground and light muscavado sugar for soft brown.

Here's the adapted recipe;
1 tablespoon ground ginger,
300ml malt vinegar,
500g red onions,
500g eating apples,
200g dates,
200g sultanas,
1 tablespoon mustard seed,
1 tablespoon curry powder,
400g soft brown sugar,
2 teaspoons salt,
700g rhubarb.

Boil up onion, ginger and vinegar, simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the rest, except for the rhubarb, boil then simmer for another 10 minutes or untill apples are tender.
Throw in the rhubarb, simmer until chutneyish, about 25-30 minutes.

In the pan.

The fruits of my labour.

The results are rather tasty, and will only improve with age.

Apples are Jonagold as they were the cheapest in the shop, and the rhubarb came from the garden, one massive stalk in fact. Damn stuff's taking over the yard.

Paul.

Rhubarb chutney on the cheap.

Yesterday afternoon was spent on the pleasurable task of making chutney. One of the few things that will grow in our back yard is rhubarb, chutney is always best when you don't pay or grow your own for the main ingrediant. Unfortunetely our supply of free apples has dried up, and my attempts at growing marrows have all failed miserably.

Sacred rhubarb grove.

Ready for chopping.

All in the pan, a few more hours...

...and we get this.

I call it cheap because all of the ingrediants are relatively inexpensive, no red wine vinegar here just Aldi malt vinegar at 21 pence a pint. Even the sugar is plain old white granulated.
Here's the recipe, taken from an old cookbook in Mum's collection;

3lb rhubarb
12oz onion
4oz sultanas
1lb white sugar
3 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons curry powder
3/4 pint malt vinegar

Chop up everything that needs chopping and chuck it all in a pan (Mum's old jam pan in my case), bring to the boil, then simmer for a few hours until its thickened. Pour in jars hot from the dishwasher, job done. Leave for a month at least then enjoy.

Paul.