Sweet and Sour Chutney

This morning there was an advert from a lady on freecycle trying to get rid of her excess cherry plums. I couldn't resist and Steve nipped down there and came back with 4kg of green and 2kg of red plums :)

I dusted off my stockpot and decided to use up some cooking apples at the same time.

Apple and Green Plum Chutney

2kg Green Plums. Rinsed well with cold water.
200ml cider vinegar
4 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
3 small red chillies, chopped finely.
300g sugar.

Place (whole, with stones) into stock pot, add vinegar and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, go through the mixture and remove the stones with a teaspoon. This does take 5-10 minutes, but it's infinitley easier than trying to destone fresh tiny little plums.

Lots and lots and lots of lovely stones.

Give the vinegary plum mixture a good stir.

Add the chopped apples, chillies and the sugar. Stir well and turn the heat to medium.

Cook at a quick boil, stirring regularly for at least an hour until the mixture is thick and gloopy. You should be able to pull a spoon through the mixture and leave a trail that takes a few moments to fill.

Jar up into sterile vinegar proof jars, label, cool and store in a dark place for 6-8 weeks to mature.

Nom with cheese.

Chillies and Citrus

Chillies are my very favourite things to grow (and eat ;) )

My wall of chillies in the front room.

A large red chilli (this is a mutant batch that was cross pollenated with a bell pepper last year)

Funky Chillies, just starting to turn purple.

Aurora chillies (my namesake). I adore these.

Meyer lemons. I've got 7 large fruits, and one little ripening one. I think I'll turn them into curd

There are lots more chillies in the greenhouse, jalapenos, purple tigers and serranos. As well as my Poblanos in the kitchen. I'll add more photos when I get half a second to take some ;)

Om Nom Blogging

To try and stop spamming all my friends with boring posts about my dinners and have a seperate place to collate my recipes, tips and tricks I've set up a new blog at http://omnom365.com/

It's very new and still need tweaking, so if you spot a typo or something out of place let me know so I can fix it :)

This will still be my main blog for gardening, harvesting, cooking and general bintery though :)

It's Redcurrant Jelly Time ;)

Harvest Time :)

350g of whitecurrants

A whopping 3kg of redcurrants

Give them a good wash

Cook down for 10 minutes on a medium heat

Add same weight of sugar to berries

Boil for 8 minutes and then pour into muslins and hang over bowls.

Take a break while gravity does it's thing.

Lovely clear jelly liquid

Ladle into clean jars and lid up