Lemon, ginger and chilli chutney
Monday, June 28, 2010 at 9:33PM Zip, tang, kick
Aware that my chutney stocks were running low, I was horrified the other day to realise that I had only a paltry half jar left. Half a jar and several months away from British chutney-making season! August Victoria plums, the late summer tomato glut, autumn apples and pears. And then another three months to mature after making before eating.
Whaah, what was a chutney-loving girl to do? I can't live without it. Robust cheeses, silken patés and cold meats just aren't the same without a spoonful of mature chutters: spice, tang and sweetness all living in sonorous harmony. And I eat one or other of those for lunch most days, alongside some interesting bread and plenty of salad. Moreover, shop bought doesn't compare with homemade. No matter how good quality. Weirdly, not even the artisanal brands.
Pondering what you can make chutney with in the height of British summer, I landed on... LEMONS!! They're in the shops all year round. And if you can make marmalade out of bitter seville oranges I reflected, surely you can make chutney out of tangy lemons...?
Some quick googling confirmed that you can. I found several very similar recipes for lemon chutney, each calling for almost the same list of ingredients but in different proportions and scales (imperial, American cups, but none in metric) and utilising slightly different methods. Using these as a rough guide to relative quantities (e.g. approximately how much vinegar and sugar are needed to raw produce), what follows is a metricised version with my own spices (chilli, fresh ginger and coriander seeds) and use of experience and intuition to judge amounts and preparation.
With another three months to wait before it's at its eating best, I can't say exactly how it'll turn out, but an early finger dip suggests very good indeed. Especially with salty, caramel-like cheeses such as aged Goudas, the Irish Coolea, and Dutch Landana Aged Goat Cheese, Landana Old Cow Cheese and Prima Dona Maturo. Alongside a slab of cold roast chicken would be wonderful too. Or even to pep up a meaty fillet of white fish. Zip, tang, kick!
Ingredients
6 medium unwaxed lemons (840g), sliced finely
2 medium onions (400g), sliced finely
1½ tablespoons rock salt
150g sultanas
450g soft brown or muscovado sugar
500ml white wine or cider vinegar
2 tablespoons/14g coriander seeds
50g piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into wispy slices using a potato peeler (see picture below)
6 medium red chillies (70g whole, 55g stalks removed and deseeded), cut into fine strips
Method
Layer the lemon and onions in a large bowl, sprinkling salt between each layer. Cover with cling film and set aside for 24 hours. Soaking in this way removes the bitterness from the pith. Drain, rinse well in cold water and allow to drain thoroughly in a colander.
Transfer the fruit to a preserving pan, or the largest pan you have. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a gentle simmer and continue to simmer gently, stirring occasionally, for 1¼-1½ hours. It is ready when most of the vinegar has disappeared and the chutney has thickened to a soft, jammy consistency. Remember it will thicken slightly after cooling so be careful not to overcook it or the final preserve will be on the dry side.
I use Delia's test for readiness: make a channel with a wooden spoon right across the surface of the chutney. If the spoon leaves a trail imprinted for a few seconds - i.e. it takes a few seconds for the vinegar to refill the channel - then it's ready.
Whilst the chutney is cooking, sterilise your jars by washing in hot soapy liquid, rinse well, and place on a baking tray in a preheated oven (160C) until dry, approximately 10 minutes. While it is still warm, spoon the chutney into the warmed jars (reheat them in a 100°C oven if they've cooled after sterilisation) and screw on the lids. Label when cold if using the sticky variety. I absolutely HATE removing the glue gunge in order to reuse jars so prefer to use gift wrapping tags - the brown sort - which are so much prettier anyway. Leave to mature for three months before eating, allowing the sharpness of the vinegar to mellow.
Made 6 small to medium jars, each about 300ml in capacity.
Chutney will change its flavour the longer it's kept. I once discovered a long-forgotten jar of my Gran's rhubarb chutney that had reached the grand old age of five years - if I know they're there they get eaten - and it had the most amazing softness and complexity. Like a good wine, a good chutney ages well.
For some reason I want to try this with a home-cured ox tongue... Another fun experiment, gonna have to wait three months though :-(
Reader Comments (4)
Hi Sonda!
This looks good. I'm always looking for new ideas and never thought of using chutney for cheese and patés, but it sounds great!
If you need to convert recipes there are a bunch of converters out there. I had a widget on my blog once, but didn't think anyone was using it so I got rid of it. It was called Cultiverter, but I don't see it when I try to Google it. Must have gone defunct. There are others to pick from though if you need.
I'm off to forage for some cheese and crackers now. :)
Cheese and chutters Fran, it's a Brit classic! Thanks for the converter tip. Ounces to metric I can just about cope with, but American cups to anything by weight is a nightmare! A cup of sugar ≠ a cup of butter ≠ a cup of rice etc etc. I don't know how you guys cope. Happy foraging!
Right now I have four jars of preserved lemons maturing in my fridge and while I was making them I contemplated other flavors I could add--bay leaf, rosemary...? I never thought of ginger which seems like a natural pairing. I guess I'll have to try it in a chutney instead. I think I could use it on a lot of things. You've opened up the whole world of chutnies to me!
love it