Homemade chutney

One of the things I love about being in London in Winter is that the cold weather does inspire you to cook things that take a long time. Having the stove on for hours helps to heat the flat and as we are spending so much time in the flat, you can afford to hang around while a big pot bubbles on the stove for 2 or 3 hours.

So I've been thinking about making a chutney now for a few weeks. It does sound terribly English, doesn't it! I've been collecting jars as we finish using them and finally a couple of weeks ago, started looking for a recipe. There are a lot of different variations, so the choice was tricky. In the end, I chose one that suggested you could eat the chutney pretty much straight away, but it would also keep. A lot of them recommended storing the chutney for 1-3 months before eating it. I couldn't wait that long!

So on that basis - and because it did sound good - I chose this Pear and Apple chutney from the UKTV food website. Spread out on the bench, it did seem to be quite a lot of ingredients and had probably added up to 10 pounds, so I was hoping it turned out okay! A lot of chopping later, my biggest pot was full to the brim with lovely looking ingredients - how could all these ingredients result in something that wasn't good?? It took about an hour to come to a simmer (and we gave up and turned up the heat and put on a lid to get it there!) and then let it simmer for an hour and a half. It was still quite liquid-y after this time, but otherwise tasted good. The chutney made six jars full of varying sizes as well as a good-sized portion that we had for dinner with some honey-roasted ham, provolone cheese, Poilane sourdough bread, grapes and red wine. A delicious version of a ploughmans. Lucky we liked it, because it made a lot! I think there is something to the bitey cheddar with chutney, so along with smoked ham, I think that will be the next ploughmans . . . and the one after . . . and the one after . . .