Hi all
We have some early apples to pick from our trees at Northfields allotments, so if you have any free time over this weekend why not drop me a line and let me know your availability. It doesn’t matter if you only have an hour, there’s still a lot of picking that can be done in this amount of time! Email Diane at wenabundance@gmail.com
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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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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We have our first volunteering event of 2012 and wow what a lot of volunteers! A great start to the year; I hope this continues. We have taken on this small rather run down Orchard that needs a good tidy up before we start pruning. A team of us will be there this Saturday 14th January to do this job, ably helped by The London Orchard Project who will be providing expert help and advice on the day. One of the Ealing Park Rangers will also be there to help out and support us too. We will then be holding a pruning workshop there on the 4th February to learn basic pruning techniques and then prune the 8 trees.
I’ll post some pictures up of the day so you can have a look at the Orchard and the lovely team of volunteers too!
The London Orchard Project are looking for a couple of people to help put together tree packs following their Apple Day tree planting workshops. They will be assembling the packs at the beautiful Camley Street Natural Park near Kings Cross, and you can grill Lewis and David on any fruit-tree related questions while you work. The resulting packs will be collected for planting by over 50 people who attended the workshops back in October, resulting in a greener, more fruitful London.
Where: Camley Street Natural Park, 12 Camley St, London N1C 4PW
When: Wed 11th Jan, 10.30am-4pm
To help out or for further details contact david@thelondonorchardproject.org
West Ealing Abundance 