Food: Apple-Pear Chutney
Today's loose end, a recipe I've been meaning to post:
This is the recipe I used for my apple-pear chutney binge last month. I tried to use the same recipe as I did when I last made chutney two years ago, but I have four or five bookmarked and I think I chose a different one. Nevertheless, it turned out well. My previous chutney was from the glossy, jam-like-consistency school of chutneys, while this latest one is more the apple-sauce-textured variety. Both delicious, just with slightly different applications.
(My husband took a sauce-making class earlier this year, and they made an apple cider gastrique to accompany grilled fois gras. This chutney reminds me very much of that in flavor and works in similar situations--as an accompaniment to poultry and pork, cheese and pate and other rich dishes that need something to cut the fattiness. Bless that class, they sent home the leftovers, gah.)
The original recipe is here. This is mine with notes on modifications. This recipe made 9 pints of chutney, but you can easily halve it if you don't want so much.
Ingredients:
1 quart cider vinegar or equivalent mixture of 5% acidity vinegars (I did half unfiltered cider vinegar, half white vinegar, plus a extra 1/8 cup sherry vinegar for flavor)
12 pounds mixed tart, flavorful apples (recommended: Jonathan, Winesap) and hard pears (i.e. bosc or any green variety) - I used 10 pounds of apples and 2 of pears
2.5 cups sugar - divided between white and brown as you prefer
1/2 pound seedless raisins or currants
2 oz garlic -- peeled, chopped (or use a garlic press if you want it very fine)
1/4 pound gingerroot -- peeled, chopped
2 tablespoons pickling salt or pure sea salt
Additional sugar -- to taste
Cayenne -- to taste
Cooking:
Peel, core, and dice apples and pears. Set aside 2 pounds for later, and put the rest in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add vinegar, 2.5 cups sugar, raisins, garlic, ginger and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until the fruit is mushy and transparent. Add a little more vinegar if more liquid is needed. Taste and add sugar and cayenne as desired.
Cook until the original batch of fruit is mostly broken up, then add the last 2 pounds of fruit. This is to give extra texture to the finished chutney. Continue cooking until the chutney has the consistency you want. I stopped when the chutney was reduced and had the texture of chunky apple sauce, but you could continue until it's thicker and more jam-like if you prefer. I think to get a really sticky, glossy consistency you'd want more sugar in the recipe--maybe the original recipe's 3 cups instead of my 2.5. I did add about another 1/4 cup of brown sugar during the "season to taste" part.
If you're canning the chutney, put into hot jars and process is a boiling water bath for 12 minutes (half-pints) or 16 minutes (pints). Make sure jars have sealed, and store in the pantry until you're ready to open them.
If you don't want the hassle of canning, you can just keep the chutney in the fridge: Spoon into clean jars (heat them first in a clean sink of hot water to avoid the danger of breakage when hot chutney hits cold jar), cap, and allow to cool completely before refrigerating. This has pretty much the same shelf life in the fridge as refrigerator jam--use within a few months.
Things to do with chutney:
- With jam-like chutney I tend to do things with it like spread it on sandwiches, which doesn't work as well with this one due to more applesauce-ness.
- For a party dish, spoon chutney over a soft cheese (like a wheel of brie) and serve with water crackers.
- Curried chicken salad or waldorf salad: Dressing--3 parts mayonnaise, 1 part yogurt, .5 parts chutney and curry powder or curry spices, salt to taste. Serve over a salad of cold chicken (optional), celery, apples or grapes, raisins or currants, and toasted pecans, walnuts or almonds.
- Festive grain salad:
3-4 cups cold cooked grains (i.e. wild rice mix, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice)
about 1/2 cup dried fruit such as cranberries, raisins, golden raisins, finely diced candied ginger, dried cherries
diced celery
diced apples
toasted nuts
fresh parsley
Dressing: juice of a lemon, juice of an orange, some grated zest if you want, about the same amount of olive oil as juice, salt to taste, a couple of tablespoons of chutney, a pinch of cumin; shake up together, taste, add additional juice/salt/chutney to taste. Depending on your quantities you may need to double this. If you don't have oranges, use another lemon and add a generous pinch of sugar. Save a little dressing to add right before serving.
FOOD, YAY!
This post originated on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. Comment here or there.
This is the recipe I used for my apple-pear chutney binge last month. I tried to use the same recipe as I did when I last made chutney two years ago, but I have four or five bookmarked and I think I chose a different one. Nevertheless, it turned out well. My previous chutney was from the glossy, jam-like-consistency school of chutneys, while this latest one is more the apple-sauce-textured variety. Both delicious, just with slightly different applications.
(My husband took a sauce-making class earlier this year, and they made an apple cider gastrique to accompany grilled fois gras. This chutney reminds me very much of that in flavor and works in similar situations--as an accompaniment to poultry and pork, cheese and pate and other rich dishes that need something to cut the fattiness. Bless that class, they sent home the leftovers, gah.)
The original recipe is here. This is mine with notes on modifications. This recipe made 9 pints of chutney, but you can easily halve it if you don't want so much.
Ingredients:
1 quart cider vinegar or equivalent mixture of 5% acidity vinegars (I did half unfiltered cider vinegar, half white vinegar, plus a extra 1/8 cup sherry vinegar for flavor)
12 pounds mixed tart, flavorful apples (recommended: Jonathan, Winesap) and hard pears (i.e. bosc or any green variety) - I used 10 pounds of apples and 2 of pears
2.5 cups sugar - divided between white and brown as you prefer
1/2 pound seedless raisins or currants
2 oz garlic -- peeled, chopped (or use a garlic press if you want it very fine)
1/4 pound gingerroot -- peeled, chopped
2 tablespoons pickling salt or pure sea salt
Additional sugar -- to taste
Cayenne -- to taste
Cooking:
Peel, core, and dice apples and pears. Set aside 2 pounds for later, and put the rest in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add vinegar, 2.5 cups sugar, raisins, garlic, ginger and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until the fruit is mushy and transparent. Add a little more vinegar if more liquid is needed. Taste and add sugar and cayenne as desired.
Cook until the original batch of fruit is mostly broken up, then add the last 2 pounds of fruit. This is to give extra texture to the finished chutney. Continue cooking until the chutney has the consistency you want. I stopped when the chutney was reduced and had the texture of chunky apple sauce, but you could continue until it's thicker and more jam-like if you prefer. I think to get a really sticky, glossy consistency you'd want more sugar in the recipe--maybe the original recipe's 3 cups instead of my 2.5. I did add about another 1/4 cup of brown sugar during the "season to taste" part.
If you're canning the chutney, put into hot jars and process is a boiling water bath for 12 minutes (half-pints) or 16 minutes (pints). Make sure jars have sealed, and store in the pantry until you're ready to open them.
If you don't want the hassle of canning, you can just keep the chutney in the fridge: Spoon into clean jars (heat them first in a clean sink of hot water to avoid the danger of breakage when hot chutney hits cold jar), cap, and allow to cool completely before refrigerating. This has pretty much the same shelf life in the fridge as refrigerator jam--use within a few months.
Things to do with chutney:
- With jam-like chutney I tend to do things with it like spread it on sandwiches, which doesn't work as well with this one due to more applesauce-ness.
- For a party dish, spoon chutney over a soft cheese (like a wheel of brie) and serve with water crackers.
- Curried chicken salad or waldorf salad: Dressing--3 parts mayonnaise, 1 part yogurt, .5 parts chutney and curry powder or curry spices, salt to taste. Serve over a salad of cold chicken (optional), celery, apples or grapes, raisins or currants, and toasted pecans, walnuts or almonds.
- Festive grain salad:
3-4 cups cold cooked grains (i.e. wild rice mix, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice)
about 1/2 cup dried fruit such as cranberries, raisins, golden raisins, finely diced candied ginger, dried cherries
diced celery
diced apples
toasted nuts
fresh parsley
Dressing: juice of a lemon, juice of an orange, some grated zest if you want, about the same amount of olive oil as juice, salt to taste, a couple of tablespoons of chutney, a pinch of cumin; shake up together, taste, add additional juice/salt/chutney to taste. Depending on your quantities you may need to double this. If you don't have oranges, use another lemon and add a generous pinch of sugar. Save a little dressing to add right before serving.
FOOD, YAY!
This post originated on Dreamwidth, where it has
comments. Comment here or there.