Old Dowerhouse Chutney

I planned to make this at the end of the summer but couldn't muster the energy in my newly-pregnant state so had to postpone!  Hurrah for freezers - the fruit has spent a few months in the bottom drawer and I finally had the energy and time to make a batch the other day.

The bonus about making it in the summer/autumn is that you can use local, or at the very least British fruit, but you should be able to get hold of what you need for a winter batch if you're desperate!

It is just delicious, perfect in a cheese sandwich or with cold meats.  The recipe is good old Delia Smith's.

Bear in mind that this chutney needs a couple of months (ideally three) to mature before you can eat it, so don't make it now hoping to eat it next weekend!

1.5lb/700g plums

8oz/200g tomatoes (hence why it's best to make this in the summer/autumn, I used tinned ones instead of tasteless, foreign, winter tomatoes)

1.5lb/700g (weight after peeling and coring) cooking apples (such as Bramleys)

8oz/200g onions

1lb/450g raisins

4oz preserved ginger in syrup

1 large clove garlic

1.5lb/700g demerara sugar

1 pint/570ml malt vinegar

1.5tbsp salt

Make sure you have a really enormous saucepan, 7 or 8 1lb/450g jars and if you can be bothered, waxed paper discs.

Cut the plums in half, remove the stones and cut each half in half again.  Since I had found my plums in a reduced section in a local farm shop and they'd had a several-months long stint in the freezer, they really weren't looking so perky!

Roughly chop the tomatoes and add them to the pan, then grate in the apple.

Blend or mince the onion, raisins, ginger and garlic until you have a coarse paste and add to the pan along with the sugar, vinegar and salt.

Bring to the boil, turn to a medium/low heat and simmer for 1-1.5 hours.  Stir regularly and keep and eye on it towards the end so that it doesn't stick and burn.  Also close the kitchen door and maybe open a window as everything tends to get a bit 'eau de vinegar' otherwise.  It's ready when you can drag a wooden spoon through it and see the bottom of the pan.

Don't forget to prep your jars!  Rinse them in hot soapy water, then place them in the oven and 'bake' them for 20 mins at 160C/gas mark 3.  This sterilises them and also means they are hot ready to put the hot chutney in.  If they're ready a bit before the chutney then turn the oven off but leave the jars in to keep warm.

When the chutney is ready, spoon it into the hot jars, top each with a waxed paper disc (not absolutely essential, but it mostly helps keep the vinegar from corroding the lid) and screw the lids on tightly.

Label the jars once they're cold and store somewhere not too hot or cold for 2/3 months to let the vinegar calm down a bit.