I've been inspired to make a Chutney for next Christmas, having been given several jars of 'Christmas Chutney' this year. While in some respects obviously a marketing ploy, it got me thinking about what sort of chutney would have the required festive feel.

Delia has a Christmas Chutney which includes lots of dried fruit and  Mary Berry has one made from peppers and aubergines. The general idea seems to concoct something a bit richer than usual, maybe containing fruit associated with Christmas, which also goes well with cold meat and cheese (most chutneys do...)

I realise I'm coming at this from the wrong end of the year, so may save up some ideas for use in the late summer, maybe plum and apple chutney.

I finally went for a Apple and Cranberry chutney from the BBC good food website, mainly because there was a bag of cranberries lurking in the bottom of the vegetable drawer.

I reckon it's a good time of year to use make this chutney, using up cheap cranberries or Christmas leftovers along with apples still stored from the Autumn. This lightly coloured fruity chutney would make a good Christmas chutney for next year, if you could wait that long.

See here for the Apple and Cranberry Chutney recipe.

Recipe Costs

£1.34 1kg cooking  apples
£0.74 500g eating apples (coxes)
£0.33 450g onions
£0.50 50g fresh root ginger
£0.04 1 tsp peppercorns
£0.37 500g granulated sugar
£0.35 250ml cider vinegar
£4.94 500g cranberries
£8.61 Total

about £4.30 per kg of chutney (about a quarter the cost of buying similar from the Hawkshead Relish Company or 65% of the cost of similar at tesco )

Starting with finely chopped onions, with life made easier using a sharp knife.

The mixture of cooking and eating apples is not one I've come across before, I guess it should give a variety of textures in the finished chutney. The coarsely chopped Bramley Apples will break down quickly when cooking...

... while the finely chopped coxes should retain some of their bite.

The only spices in this recipe are chopped fresh ginger and whole black peppercorns, it'll be interesting to see if the finished chutney could of done with more. (perhaps a few cloves or cinnamon)

All the ingredients apart from the cranberries are cooked up together and simmered for about 50 minutes. The organic cider vinegar will add to the apple flavour, I'm sure white wine vinegar would work as well.

The cranberries are added towards the end of the cooking, to ensure they don't turn to mush. I have to admit to not knowing much about cranberries and was intrigued by the slogan 'straight from the bog' on the packet. You can find out a bit more about them, along with some photos of how they are harvested from the flooded bogs at the pineypower.com website.

After a further 10 minutes simmering the cranberries were still whole, the apples had broken down and the chutney was a good consistency.

The finished chutney is a very light colour, which makes an interesting change from the usual dark brown offerings.

Recipe Timings

25 mins chopping
55 mins simmering
15 mins potting

Taste Test

This will have to wait a few months.