I could’ve named this post “how I further promote the decomposition process happening in my fridge and make it palatable”. Chutney is my way of dealing with the drunk, mushy fruit in the bottom of my fridge, sort of like soup is how I deal with leftover veggies.
I doubt you’ll ever want to eat at my house again.
Anyway, so our wrangler Suzie brought me some beautiful plums. Sadly, it was during Cowboy Camp and so the plums sat on my kitchen counter, bleeding their briney juice onto the formica for several days before I could tend to them. Given that chutney and jam are basically mushy fruit with sugar, I decided to make a plum chutney. But by the time I picked out the seriously rotten ones (which I fed to the chickens who are now completely blottoed), I needed a little more fruit. What do you know? I had some mushy apples too! My fridge is a dang gold mine!
Chutney to me is best with lots of texture, so I cut everything in biggish chunks and left the skins on. Here are some photos of the process:
Plum Apple Chutney getting ready to cook. Your house will smell awesome.
Jumbo muffin tin of plum apple chutney. I put this in the freezer. Once solid, I then individually vacuum seal and freeze these little hockey-pucks of awesomeness.
And here is the recipe!
- 2 1/2 cups pitted, chopped plums
- 1 cup chopped apples
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup dried cranberries (you could try raisins too)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons mustard seed
- 3 tablespoons ginger paste
- Combine sugars and vinegar in a saucepan.
- Bring to boil, stirring to melt sugar.
- Mix in remaining ingredients, bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and cook gently 45 minutes until thickened. Stir frequently.
- At this point you can choose your preservation method. I ladled it into a muffin tin to freeze small portions. Once frozen, I take them out and then vacuum seal them and freeze them. Otherwise you can can them.
- This is a chunky, spicey chutney that is a beautiful color -- great for pork tenderloin, chicken, or turkey. Or you can do like me and just eat it with chips.
