The Chutney Method
Created by jnoel, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 Description
by Jesse Griffiths
Photography by Jody Horton
Chutney is an all-encompassing and delicious use for leftover
vegetables, bumper crops, or those big bags of fruit given to you as a
gift. It can be made with anything. I prefer a mix of sweet fruit, some
vegetables, raisins, sugar, vinegar and spices. The technique is
nothing more than cooking everything down to a paste and seasoning to
your liking to achieve that nice balance between sweet, spicy and sour.
I have used apples, pears, green tomatoes, overgrown zucchini, plums,
onions, kumquats, peaches and sweet potatoes with varying success. The
great part is that you can make it a month ahead of time—it keeps well
in the fridge and gets better with age.
Ingredients
Fruit (see above, but don’t be limited by that list)
Vegetables (same applies)
Fresh ginger, peeled
Raisins or currants
Spices and herbs, such as cinnamon, allspice, cloves, peppercorns,
rosemary, thyme and bay leaves, wrapped in cheesecloth and tied with
string
Sugar, honey, agave nectar, Rapadura—you get the picture
Vinegar (red wine, white wine, champagne or my favorite: Bragg’s apple cider vinegar)
Methods/steps
Okay. Put everything except for the sugar and vinegar in a
thick-bottomed pot over low heat with a splash of water to get it
started and cook for a long time, stirring every once in a while to
avoid sticking, adding a little more water if necessary. Once
everything has reached a certain homogeneous mush, add sugar and
vinegar to taste. Think “ketchup” as your reference, which is just
tomato chutney, after all. Don’t be afraid to make it spicy with
peppers, sweeter with pears or extra sour with citrus. The chutney
pictured was made with apples, sweet potatoes, kumquats, currants and
onions—things we just had lying around. Serve with the duck.
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