I Hate Chutney

[wellie]

....or so I thought, until I discovered this gorgeous recipe from Sarah Raven's sister Anna, and I can't recommend it highly enough peeps! and whilst you're making it, it smells just like Christmas?

DAMSON CHUTNEY

from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook (ISBN 978-0-7475-8870-2)

675g soft brown muscovado sugar
225g apples
900g damsons
850ml vinegar
450g raisins
2 onions
1 tblsps. sea salt
2 crushed garlic cloves
few fresh or dried chillies
15g ground allspice
15g ground ginger

Place the sugar in a very low oven to warm for about half hour.
Peel, core and chop the apples.
Add to the damsons in a large pan with the vinegar and all other ingredients, except the sugar.
Simmer til soft, and stir regularly to prevent chutney sticking.
Remove from heat (and pick out stones?! if you're an anorak like me!)
Add the warmed sugar. Put back on heat til sugar completely dissolved.
Simmer until volume is sufficiently reduced to a thick mass.
Spoon into warm sterilised jars, seal & store for a month before use.
Chutney keeps really well for up to 2 years.

Honest to God, this chutney is simply divine.
I made some during Damson Season, and froze the rest of the Damsons that I hadn't the energy to do ought-else-with till Trousers came down with 'Man Flu' today, when I hoiked them out of freezer and into pot.
BOY is it good with cold meats........
Can you BUY frozen Damsons? Never seen them myself.....

[Flummery]

The first thing I bought for the garden when we moved here was a damson tree, Wellie - variety Shropshire Prune. I make damson chutney every year. Not only is it great with cheese, cold meat etc, it is fabulous dolloped into just about any curry - a good tablespoon per 2 people.

Incidentally, I found a pot of chutney (apple, not damson) that was 9 years old (shows how thoroughly I clear out my cupboards!) and while a bit thick and tasting rather 'mature' it still goes ok into curries.

I've rarely seen damsons for sale here. When I lived in Manchester they were a regular autumn event in the shops - grown on the Fylde coast.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Oh! That does sound good, hon - I bet I can do it with plums from the tree next year.

[Flummery]

Plums make great chutney Hazel. You can also do spiced pickled plums - just take out the stone, heat with vinegar, sugar, spices - whoo-hoo! Lead me to the cheese and cold cuts!

[Farmer_Gyles]

damson chutney sounds good to me - except a so-called tree surgeon pruned my damson tree couple of years back and kinda killed it

and i sooooo regret giving my mother a bucket full of green tomatoes - tooooooo much green tomato chutney!

[pigletwillie]

Having three plum trees and no damsons I always substitute plums for them and to be honest I think that damsons are just small plums, they taste the same to me.

Anyway, I made plum chutney last year and it really is delish and as Wellie says, goes very well with cold meats, good cheese and pork pies.

[Alison]

You see the problem with this site is as soon as I saw the recipe I thought "oooooh, I love chutney and I have loads of damsons in the freezer.................." only just managed to stop myself running to the kitchen to make it imediately when I remembered that I have several jars of tomato and chilli, green tomato, apple, cranberry and probably some other kind of chutney already filling half our larder cupboard so need to STOP making any more until we've eaten more of what we already have!

[pigletwillie]

Ahhh but Alison, it tastes better the older it gets

or so Trousers tell me anyway

[Flummery]

It does Piglet - like a good bloke, it matures!

[Alison]

Suppose I do have a few spare jam jars............................

[wellie]

Oh Alison.... you know you want to!

And I gave some as a Christmas Prezzie to one of my favouritest clients (Mrs. Hyphen-Hypen) and SHE said that "It's just GORGEOUS. Particularly with cheese", so I'm well-chuffed!.....

[Bramble_killer]

Bump to an old thread. I just made this and it's so yummy. I completely didn't follow the instructions (and I currently have no kitchen/oven) so just threw everything in a pan and boiled it up. Didn't have raisins so used about 1/2 the volume in currants and added a bit more apple. Didn't add any salt as it was fine without it.

yum yum. can't wait to get it out in a few months.

[annacruachan]

Bump to an old thread. I just made this and it's so yummy. I completely didn't follow the instructions (and I currently have no kitchen/oven) so just threw everything in a pan and boiled it up. Didn't have raisins so used about 1/2 the volume in currants and added a bit more apple. Didn't add any salt as it was fine without it.

yum yum. can't wait to get it out in a few months.

That's what's so lovely about chutney, it's really tolerant of swapped ingredients and mistakes! I have used mixed fruit when the chutney urge comes on and I have no raisins in the cupboard, chucked in the odd peach or dried apricot or an extra apple - anything that's hanging about really.

[bobleponge]

Yup, there was chutney made at Le Mottay this year, and all the ingredients werent in the list, so stuff was added or taken away.
Tasted gorgeous before going into the jars, so no doubt it will be fantastic when its matured a bit.

[LilyRose]

Hurray for chutney lovers!!!