Like a lot of people we always seem to get a glut of courgettes at this time of year, actually most of them are more worthy of being called marrows. We're also overflowing with cooking apples, and the tomatoes are looking like we're going have to pick them green before the dreaded blight makes it's annual visit.

All of this points towards using this excellent recipe based on the one Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall calls glutney on his river cottage blog. The beauty of Hugh's recipe is in it's adaptability, as long as you use 3kg of marrows / courgettes / pumpkins / tomatoes / apples the actual quantities are interchangeable.

  See here for the courgette chutney recipe in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£10.07 Total (£5.07 without buying the courgettes, tomatoes or apples)

£3.35 per kg of chutney (40% the price of buying it.)

The courgette (pictured above) I used is a variety called floridor, which produces masses of round yellow fruit. They're great eaten small, but I used about half of an overgrown one in this recipe.

I used cooking apples, which are peeled and roughly chopped, they break down well in the cooking process, so don't need to be too small.

Green tomatoes also go into the mix, I tend to leave the skins on, which makes preparing them a lot quicker. I don't find the small bits of skin a problem in the finished chutney, but some people don't like this in which case the tomatoes should be peeled at this point by scalding in boiling water.

Onions are chopped finely, as always using a good sharp knife.

I was running short of dried fruit, so made up 500g of raisins, sultanas and currents from the ends of some bags. Chopped dried apricots or dates would also work well.

A teaspoon of dried chilli flakes adds some spice, if you're brave you can add a few more teaspoonfuls at this point.

The selection of spices is tied up securely in muslin, there's room for experimentation at this point. Hugh's recipe contained fresh ginger, which I left out, and you could try adding nutmeg, allspice or cardamon as well.

All the ingredients, including the sugar and salt, are mixed up in a large preserving pan, it's essential to use a large pan to allow the surplus water to evaporate off during the cooking. The spice bag is buried deep in the middle to allow the flavours to be extracted.

Vinegar is added, I used some home made  spiced pickling vinegar to add more depth and flavour to the recipe. Standard cider or white wine vinegar will also do fine.

The resulting mixture is brought to the boil, at which point a lot of liquid starts to come out as the fruit and vegetables break down.

The heat is turned down to a simmer and the pan is left uncovered, with occasional stirring, until the chutney is thick and ready to pot in sterilised jars.

The chutney will be ready in a few months, and should easily last for a year if stored in a cool dark place. It'll be great with cold meat, cheese or in a sandwich.

Recipe Timings

1 hour Preparation
5 hours Cooking
15 minutes Bottling