October Chutneyfest

Thanks to the lovely Book People who spend many a day fetching and carrying books to our remote and rural offices, I am now the proud owner of this bad boy:

Now despite my awe and excitement over this book, I do feel as though I haven’t yet reached the heady heights of baking expertise as is expected of the target reader. Darina Allen, the author, seems to be very well to do and has an aura of some sort of Mother Theresa to baking. I feel like I should refer to her as ‘Our Lady’ and pray to her to make my brownies gooey. In one recipe for some interesting-looking bread originating from Suffolk, called ‘brotherly love’ she advises,

“don’t even attempt at making this bread unless you have fine lard from a well reared pig”

I have a feeling I won’t be attempting this little bread mission as, despite living in a dark corner of leafy Buckinghamshire, I’m ashamed to say I wouldn’t really know where to even start looking for a well reared pig to charm some fine lard from.

Anyway, the reason that tipped me over the edge of frivolous purchasing was Darina’s Preserves section. I’m not sure whether it’s an innate urge within me harking back to the days of foraging for berries and stocking up for the winter, but as soon as the nights start drawing in, I get an overwhelming desire to go out and by a job lot of those glass jars with the flippy lid, and fill them with delicious goodies.

One recipe in particular that caught my eye was the Red Pepper, Tomato and Lemongrass Chutney, mainly because I love anything with the merest hint of lemongrass which I think smells like citrussy heaven, and I also have a healthy supply of tomatoes from the plants I grew (from scratch!!) at work. (Yes I have a silly job that doesn’t require much of my time, and an eccentric Boss who is pretty much insane).

Here is a selection of my glorious tomatoes…

I was going to call it a bushel, but apparently a bushel means 53lbs…that’s almost 4 stone of tomatoes! Even I feel this could be slightly excessive. I definitely did not have a bushel, I had 1lb of quality ORGANIC tomatoes reared by my fair hand, and everyone knows quality is more important than quantity!

Here is the crowning glory of my tomato crop. It is the size of a small pumpkin! I was in two minds about saving it for Halloween and carving a face out of it!

Red Pepper, Tomato and Lemongrass Chutney

Ingredients

225g (8oz) onion finely chopped

4tbsp extra virgin olive oil

450g (1lb) very ripe red peppers seeded and diced (I found this to be about 3 ½ large peppers)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp mace

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ fresh ginger, finely grated

1 stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped (if I were to make this again, I would use 2 stalks of lemongrass as the flavour was very subtle in the finished chutney, and I would prefer something a bit more pungent)

450g (1lb) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped

110g (4oz) raisins

1 garlic clove, chopped

225g (8oz) white sugar

150ml ¼ pint white wine vinegar

Sweat the onions in the olive oil in a stainless-steel saucepan. Add the peppers, salt, spices, grated ginger and lemongrass. After 10 minutes, add the tomatoes, raisins, garlic, sugar and vinegar. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for about 1½ hours, until it looks thick and gooey. Pour into sterilised glass jars and cover with non-reactive lids. Mine filled 3 ½ jars!