Our first apple juice of the season is now available. We sent over 100kg of local apples for pressing at Millets in Oxfordshire. The apples came from our orchard in Walmer Gardens and some local back gardens. The juice costs £2.80 a bottle (75cl) or 3 for £7.50 and is available from The Craft Barn at The Fox pub in Hanwell or you can email us and we can arrange collection – wenabundance@gmail.com
Our second batch of apples has just been delivered for pressing so there is more on its way.
Please note: unlike standard recipes the apple quantities are net weights -AFTER chopping etc and are based on using a very large pan- 30 cm minimum in diameter
Ingredients
1.8 k of cooking apples (net weight)
600g of onions
200g sultanas (green or golden)
zest and juice of 1 large unwaxed lemon
500ml of white wine vinegar
500g of Demerara sugar
1 ½ tablespoons of prepared Baharatspice mix – Baharat spice mix from supermarkets is a good alternative)
Wash, peel and core the apples and finely chop. If the skins are unblemished, pale in colour and are not greasy or thick then do not bother peeling.
Peel and very finely chop the onions. Zest and juice the lemon
Lightly oil the base of a large heavy based pan. Put in the spice, add the chopped onion, apple, sultanas and lemon zest. Add the vinegar plus the lemon juice and bring slowly to the boil. Turn down and gently simmer for 10-15 minutes to soften the onion and apple and allow the sultanas to plump up.
Add the sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved before bringing back to the boil.
Turn down and simmer very gently for at least 90 minutes cooking from this stage to develop flavours. Stir every now and then to ensure it is not sticking. (Sultanas BURN very quickly!!) You will need to stir quite frequently as it thickens and nears completion (gently and slowly move the spoon around the base of the pan taking care not to break the surface of the mixture as it can spit quite violently). It is ready when you can draw a spoon either across the base of the pan or through a spoonful of mixture on a plate and no watery liquid runs into the trail.
Bottle in warm sterilised jars. Use a skewer or the thin handle of a long spoon, to remove the bubbles from the jar mixture. Fill the jars to the base of the neck and add just a little more as the mixture might shrink slightly when it cools. Seal while hot. Label when cold and store in a cool dark place. Keep for a few months before opening to allow the flavours to develop. Once open, store in a refrigerator. It can be kept for 12-18 months.
Tips and tricks to avoid problems:
If after the sugar has been added, there seems to be an excess of liquid, simmer rapidly for a short period to remove some of the liquid. Do not wait till the end as it will simply burn. Extra liquid can come from fruit which is very juicy/ripe.
However, be careful not to remove too much liquid as the chutney needs to cook for at least 90mins after the sugar has been added to enable the flavours to mingle. It is surprising how much liquid does evaporate at even a low cooking temperature.
Chutney is a balance of small soft pieces of fruit within a thickened sauce. Be careful that all the fruit is not the type that does not breakdown. If this happens you end up with pieces of fruit and a thin liquid which is never going to make a chutney. I keep some “fluffed” apple – sort of pured apple in the freezer so that I can add the odd spoon to thicken the liquid if this happens. I freeze this as ice cubes as these are easier to incorporate from frozen. If I am batch making over a few days and know I will need the apple, I make the pureed apple and keep in the fridge. I tend to add in the last half hour of cooking. I also cut down the amount of apple that I have added at the beginning.
| Ingredients
1.5 k of cooking apples 500g of onions 200g sultanas (green or golden) 2 un-waxed lemons 500ml of cider vinegar 400g of Demerara sugar 1 ½ tablespoons of Cottage spices 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger |
Spice mix
1 tsp ground Allspice ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper pinch of ground cloves (optional) ½ tablespoon mustard seed ¼ teaspoon sea salt (optional) (1 teaspoon ground ginger if not using fresh ginger)
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Wash, peel and core the apples and finely chop (quarter to half an inch square)
Peel and very finely chop the onions. Thinly slice the lemon and remove the seeds. Cut the slices into smallish pieces. Try to retain as much of the lemon juice from the chopped lemons as possible.
Add the spices, then the chopped onion, apple, sultanas and lemon to a large heavy based pan.
Add the vinegar and bring slowly to the boil. Turn down and gently simmer for 10-15 minutes to soften the onion and apple and allow the sultanas to plump up. Cook longer if there is a lot of liquid.
Add the sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved before bringing back to the boil.
Turn down and simmer very gently for at least 90 minutes cooking from this stage to develop flavours. Stir every now and then to ensure it is not sticking. (Sultanas BURN very quickly!!) You will need to stir quite frequently as it thickens and nears completion (gently and slowly move the spoon around the base of the pan taking care not to break the surface of the mixture as it can spit quite violently). It is ready when you can draw a spoon either across the base of the pan or through a spoonful of mixture on a plate and no watery liquid runs into the trail. Or simply place a good spoonful of chutney on a plate and see if any liquid seeps out. If it does, return to the pan and continue cooking.
Bottle in warm sterilised jars (chutney = square 200 jars). Use a skewer or the thin handle of a long spoon, to remove the bubbles from the jar mixture. Fill the jars to the base of the neck and add just a little more (½ teaspoon) as the mixture might shrink slightly when it cools. Seal while hot. Label when cold and store in a cool dark place. Keep for a few months before opening to allow the flavours to develop. Once open, store in a refrigerator. It can be kept for 12-18 months.
Tips and tricks to avoid problems:
If after the sugar has been added, there seems to be an excess of liquid, simmer rapidly for a short period to remove some of the liquid. Do not wait till the end as it will simply burn. Extra liquid can come from fruit which is very juicy/ripe. Comic pears can be very juicy.
However, be careful not to remove too much liquid as the chutney needs to cook for at least 90 minutes after the sugar has been added to enable the flavours to mingle. It is surprising how much liquid does evaporate at even a low cooking temperature.
Chutney is a balance of small soft pieces of fruit within a thickened sauce. Be careful that all the fruit is not the type that does not breakdown. If this happens you end up with pieces of fruit and a thin liquid which is never going to make a chutney. I keep some “fluffed” apple – sort of pureed apple in the freezer so that I can add the odd spoon to thicken the liquid if this happens. I freeze this as ice cubes as these are easier to incorporate from frozen. If I am batch making over a few days and know I will need the apple, I make the pureed apple and keep in the fridge. I tend to add in the last half hour of cooking.
Do NOT guess when the chutney looks ready. Test and test again to ensure it is. When cold, the chutney should be “set” but not hard.
Recipe courtesy of Elizabeth Highton – WEN Abundance chutney expert!
Ingredients
1.5 k of cooking apples
500g of onions
200g sultanas (green or golden)
Zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
500ml of white wine vinegar
500g of Demerara sugar
1 ½ tablespoons of Baharat spices + pinch of cayenne pepper. (Supermarkets and specialists shops sell Baharat spice mix eg Barts Spice
Wash, peel and core the apples and finely chop. If the skins are unblemished and pale in colour then do not bother peeling.
Peel and very finely chop the onions. Zest and juice the lemon.
Put in the spices, add the chopped onion, apple, sultanas and lemon zest in a heavy based pan. Add the vinegar plus the lemon juice and bring slowly to the boil. Turn down and gently simmer for 10-15 minutes to soften the onion and apple and allow the sultanas to plump up.
Add the sugar and stir until all the sugar has dissolved before bringing back to the boil.
Turn down and simmer very gently for at least 90 minutes cooking from this stage to develop flavours. Stir every now and then to ensure it is not sticking. (Sultanas BURN very quickly!!) You will need to stir quite frequently as it thickens and nears completion (gently and slowly move the spoon around the base of the pan taking care not to break the surface of the mixture as it can spit quite violently). It is ready when you can draw a spoon either across the base of the pan or through a spoonful of mixture on a plate and no watery liquid runs into the trail.
Bottle in warm sterilised jars (chutney = square 200 jars). Use a skewer or the thin handle of a long spoon, to remove the bubbles from the jar mixture. Fill the jars to the base of the neck and add just a little more as the mixture might shrink slightly when it cools. Seal while hot. Label when cold and store in a cool dark place. Keep for a few months before opening to allow the flavours to develop. Once open, store in a refrigerator. It can be kept for 12-18 months.
Tips and tricks to avoid problems:
If after the sugar has been added, there seems to be an excess of liquid, simmer rapidly for a short period to remove some of the liquid. Do not wait till the end as it will simply burn. Extra liquid can come from fruit which is very juicy/ripe.
However, be careful not to remove too much liquid as the chutney needs to cook for at least 90 minutes after the sugar has been added to enable the flavours to mingle. It is surprising how much liquid does evaporate at even a low cooking temperature.
Chutney is a balance of small soft pieces of fruit within a thickened sauce. Be careful that all the fruit is not the type that does not breakdown. If this happens you end up with pieces of fruit and a thin liquid which is never going to make a chutney. I keep some “fluffed” apple – sort of pureed apple in the freezer so that I can add the odd spoon to thicken the liquid if this happens. I freeze this as ice cubes as these are easier to incorporate from frozen. If I am batch making over a few days and know I will need the apple, I make the pureed apple and keep in the fridge. I tend to add in the last half hour of cooking. I also cut down the amount of apple that I have added at the beginning.
Recipe courtesy of Elizabeth Highton – WEN Abundance chutney maker extraordinare!
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Abundance London are WEN Abundance nearest neighbours in Chiswick. Here is a little of what they are up to…
Grafting workshop, Ravenscourt Park Glasshouses, Saturday 24th March
Last few places left on our grafting workshop in Hammersmith this weekend. Learn how to create your own fruit tree – and take home your own work, a special apple or pear variety perhaps? A fun and productive 45-minute session. £15 for the lesson and the tree. Check out our website for more details, http://www.abundancelondon.com or email abundancebookings@gmail.com.
Edible High Road, Chiswick @ Chelsea Fringe
The Edible High Road will take place later this year to celebrate the Chelsea Fringe, a new London-wide festival to coincide with the Chelsea Flower Show. Abundance London will be creating a river of fruit trees along Chiswick High Road, Devonshire Road and Turnham Green Terrace for the three-week duration of the Fringe (19 May – 10 June). The trees will later be planted out permanently around Chiswick – in schools, streets and orchards.
We need another five trees to get to our target 50, so if you are a business along any of those roads and haven’t yet signed up to sponsor a tree (or are still thinking about it and haven’t yet got back to us), please do so: info@abundancelondon.com
Help us prepare the trees on Saturday 31st March.
We will be potting up the last trees – hopefully at least 20 of them – in Brentford from 11.30am. Please let us know if you can come and help, and we will send instructions how to find Cultivate London’s premises.
When: Saturday 25th February 2012,
Workshop 11am – 12pm (followed by optional volunteering session 1pm – 4pm)
Where: Stepney City Farm, Stepney Way, London E1 3DG
Cost: £5 (£3 concessionary)
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Oh yes we at WEN Abundance and Ealing Transition are a hardy lot! We braved the freezing cold on Saturday 4th February to be part of a pruning workshop at our lovely little Orchard at Walmer Gardens. The London Orchard Project are doing a fantastic job helping us and brought in an expert to guide us through the day.
With some dedicated volunteers and support – including Jon Skoyles, Ealing Park Ranger, this Orchard has undergone a complete transformation. It will take a couple more years of pruning, planting and caring for the place but we know it will be worth bringing this place back to life.
Next up is the beehive Ealing Transition will be setting up around April – I’ll let you know exact dates when confirmed should anyone be interested in coming along.
Here are some pictures of the day.
West Ealing Abundance 