Chutneys With the Last of the '09 Apples

Had a chutney-filled afternoon. After scrumping the apples from the hillside last autumn, the last ones were starting to look a little unhealthy, so we decided it was time to make them into something.

I've been wanting to try a sloe-including chutney, and found a recipe that uses the gin-addled sloes from sloe gin. Here goes:

• 3lbs of stoned, sloe-ginned sloes
• 2lbs apples, peeled, cored and chopped*
• 3 large onions, chopped*
• 1 lb sultanas
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped/minced
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground mace
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• 2 tbsp orange juice (it was meant to be juice & zest of two oranges, but we never have them in)
• 1lb 12 oz sugar (half granulated, half light soft brown)
• 1.5 pints spirit vinegar

*I tend to chop chutney ingredients quite finely: preferences vary.

Preliminary results are very encouraging! It's got good colour (thanks to the sloes), and isn't too vinegary: the proportion of vinegar is actually much lower than I'd normally expect, but I hope it'll keep well enough anyway.

Secondly, we made some 'plain' apple chutney: not enough sloes to finish the apples with the above recipe. The recipe's from an excellent book that was a Christmas present from Hazel and Alex, and which I can spend quite some time salivating over: Good Old-fashioned Jams, Preserves and Chutneys [I've used an Amazon Associates account to simplify linking to Amazon. If you follow the link and buy the book, I get a fee, so we're both happy.] Anyway, it's quite a simple recipe (apples, onions, sultanas, vinegar, ginger), but has worked out well.

The washing machine and chest freezer didn't arrive (problems with the lorry, the subject of a later rant, I think), but the microwave has (different problems with delivery, but resolved) and is looking good. The other two will get here at the end of the week...