Christmas Chutney

I had meant to post this weeks ago but time has escaped me again. If you have no time left to make it this year, then there's always next!

It's a recipe I made up having read the ingredients lists of other shop-bought chutneys or in recipe books, and then looked in my fridge and in my larder to see what I had and what needed using up. This is what I came up with:-

One and a half Coxes apples (but any apples will do)
c.250g onion (I used one large and half of a small one that was in the fridge)

600g red plums

300g sultanas

Juice of one orange

Zest of one orange
100g cranberries

Half a teaspoon of salt

200ml of water

375 ml of vinegar (I mixed 100ml sherry vinegar with 100ml of white balsamic vinegar, 100ml of malt vinegar and 75ml of malt vinegar - because they were all in the larder and needed using up!)

Mulled wine spice bag

Grated fresh ginger (about 2cm of a root)

250g light brown sugar

Spice bag (a few cloves, mustard seeds, 3 bits of orange peel, sechuan pepper - any peppercorns would do - and a chunk of peeled ginger all tied up in a small square of muslin)

Half a teaspoon of dried chilli flakes

Half a teaspoon of ground ginger

Half a teaspoon of ground coriander

Shake of Allspice

Grind of nutmeg

Shake of cinnamon

Two chunks of stem ginger, chopped

Phew! Right, all you then have to do is dice the onion and peel, core and chop the apples into small chunks. Half the plums, twist to remove the stone then cut into small chunks too. Put all this into a big preserving pan and add all the other ingredients. Of course, if you didn't have some of them, I'm sure it wouldn't matter. That's the fun of it. Just use your imagination.

You then bring the whole lot to a good old boil and then let it simmer for a number of hours, uncovered for preference to help it reduce down. The kitchen will be filled with the tantalising spicy smells of Christmas. Lovely.

Once it is sticky and gloopy and you can pass a wooden spoon along the bottom of the pan to create a small channel without it instantly filling with liquid, then it is ready.

Sterilise some jars (this quantity filled about 6 average size jars) and then get transferring your chutney into them. If you then make them look pretty, it can even be given as a gift or stocking filler.

Have fun!