Hot and sweet plum chutney

I like chutney recipes which cook everything together in one pot. No need to soften the onions in this one - everything goes in, simmers for an hour and then comes out. The recipe is from Nigel Slaters's Tender II. It's an extremely handsome book but I'm finding it better to look at than cook from at the moment. Could just be me, mind.

 

Ingredients

• 750g plums
• 250g brown sugar
• 125g raisins
• 350g chopped onions
• 150ml each cider and malt vinegar
• two teaspoon yellow mustard seeds, one salt and half dried chilli
• cinnamon stick

Two things I reckon seem to happen with chutneys, though I'm still learning the ropes. Firstly they become less liquid after a while which is good as this one really needs it. And secondly the flavour gets better - rounder, with the harshness of the vinegar receding and the gentler tones of fruit, sugar and spice coming to the front. At least that’s what I’m hoping happens here. At the moment it’s tangfastic beyond belief: mouth-puckeringly sharp, sweet and vinegary at the same time. I'm hoping that a lie down in a dark place for a month or so will tame it a bit.

PS. If anyone knows about the scientific reasons behind chutneys maturing and changing in taste please do tell.

Green bean chutney

Upon reading Nigel Slater's recipe for runner bean chutney with an abundance of green beans in the fridge and empty jam jars piling up in the cupboards it seemed like a good shout for a bit of mid-week preserving.

From my limited experience in chutney making it seems that as long as the main ingredient is accompanied by vinegar, sugar and spices you can't really go wrong. So after top and tailing the beans I fried an onion and added the spices suggested as well as some star anise and chilli.

In the spirit of keeping things simple I didn't bother cooking the beans separately but rather chucked them into the main pan to cook. I also omitted the cornflour. After another ten minutes or so I checked a couple of beans to ensure they still had the necessary squeak and bottled the stuff.

I think I was fairly liberal with the spicing and vinegar pouring so the chutney is pretty strong stuff. A bit too stong to eat large amounts of but just the ticket with a bit of cheese and bread. I'm a bit of an amateur when it comes to preserving and chutney making so please give me some ideas if you have made any good ones!

Lentils and sausages

I think there is a recipe for something very similar in Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries but it’s not a dish that demands to be assembled too slavishly. The basics are lots of onions cooked for a long time with tomatoes, lentils and some sausages thrown in. It would also be nice served with the sausages separately. I added peppers as I had some in the fridge.

Flavour wise I went for thyme, paprika, a big (though fairly mild) dried chilli, garlic and a swush of red wine vinegar.

1. Fry two onions with three cloves of garlic in plenty of olive oil for twenty minutes.
2. Add tin of tomatoes and cook for twenty minutes until onions really soft. Add puy lentils and cook until done.
3. At the same time cook/burn the peppers a bit and fry the sausages till a good colour and done. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Assemble! I put a bit of feta on top too.