Beetroot Chutney Recipe

It must be the season of purple preserves...fig jam, elderberry cordial, and now perhaps one of my top five chutneys.  I find Beetroot chutney is great way of getting some bright colour onto winter cold plates.  It goes really well with some our favourites: goat's cheese, chickpeas, cold meats, home made coleslaws, avocado and other salads.

It makes just the ideal Christmas present for friends who like preserves.  Maybe give the jar with my recipe for Boxing Day salad.  Great with cold turkey, ham etc., and no need to boil up beetroot to add that depth of flavour to something like a Russian salad, just mix in some cold diced salad potatoes, and other cold cooked veg, a little mayo, and a good quantity of this chutney.  Well my Dad always used to add beetroot to Russian salad.  A Swedish friend said that it was just like the salads they make in Sweden.

I've made Beetroot Chutney for at least 10 years.  Of course I always planted several rows of beetroot when I had my allotment.  Yesterday I could not resist the bunches at the market.  The leaves signaled freshly dug globes.  This year as it is still so warm, I did not feel like having the oven on for a couple of hours whilst they roasted, so instead they got 15 minutes in the pressure cooker.

With various books out on the table and other searches,  I found that my recipe from last year was about the best.   I made a variation to one the spices, inspired by Nigel's Salter comment in his Book 'Tender', that cumin could be included in any beetroot dish, deciding to add this to the chutney this year.

Of course you can scale up or down....

Beetroot Chutney Recipe 2014 

1Kg cooked beetroot, skinned
400g red onions
500g cooking apples, cored
250g raisins
750g cider vinegar, I use Biona Organic cider vinegar
350g soft brown sugar
1 tsp cumin
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground allspice
1tsp salt

Pour the vinegar into the preserving pan, then add the spices.   While this is heating up chop the red onion finely and pop that into the vinegar on the stove. They chop the cooking apple,  and add that together with the raisins, sugar, spices and salt to the pan.  Bring to the boil again, and reduce the heat to a simmer.  From the start to the end, stir from time to time, to make sure that the bottom does not catch, and that all the vegetables mix in the sauce. Then simmer the whole lot for about 30 minutes.

Whilst this is going on, there is time to chop the beetroot.  It is easy to make a nice neat small dice, the size you will want it on your plate.

Add the beetroot to the cooking pot, and continue the occasional stir, whilst on a gentle simmer, until the veg to sauce balance is to your liking.  I simmered gently for about one hour.

Pot up into sound jars which have been well washed and dried out in the oven.  You must use vinegar proof lids.  As you ladle the chutney into the jars, press down with the back of a teaspoon, to remove trapped air, and be sure that there is liquid to the top of the veg.  Only leave a small gap at the top of the jar, about 1/2 cm, beneath the lid.  Wipe the jars and label.  This time it yielded 8 x 340g jars, and a little 'tasting' jar.

Keep in a cool dark cupboard, best after 6 weeks, and wonderful up to 2 years thereafter!  Once opened if you are not likely to eat it up within a couple of weeks, I recommend keeping it in the fridge and use within a few weeks, but I suggest that after one month, you either don't like it, or have forgotten it was there, and have opened a second one by mistake!

It would make a wonderful Ruby Wedding Anniversary Present for the couple who has it all.

Beetroot Chutney using local Cider Vinegar

Back in 2014 I posted my recipe for Beetroot Chutney on this blog rather than my other blog Mrs Mace Preserves.  Once again there are lovely beetroots in the market. I trailed through my books and on line for another recipe.  I had got rather excited and bought a little too many bunches.  I upsized the quantities to match 1.5Kg prepared beetroot.  I think 1 Kg gives about the right number of jars for home consumption.  Friday evening when Mr S was out playing trains...it was time to get out the chopping knives and boards.

I ended using my own recipe....dear reader!  However for the first time since moving, I used a locally bought and made cider vinegar.  This latest purchase from Earthfare Glastonbury comes from a small holding within Somerset: Honey Pot Farm.  The vinegar is unfiltered and unpasturised and has a lovely golden colour, it tastes good with great cider and appley flavours...we have a little tipple diluted in water for medicinal purposes each day...but the greater quantity goes into my preserves.  I wonder whether we shall come across a cider vinegar tasting or competition now we are in Somerset.  If you know of any, please do link them into this post.

Each time I make this chutney, I may slightly vary the blend of spices.  Instead of dried ginger I used some fresh ginger very finely chopped.

It was red onions....

and having first cooked the beetroot for 20 minutes in the pressure cooker, they were very easy to chop up.

Some time later, with many jars washed and sterilised it was time for potting them up.

Not bad for an evening's work: output 6 large and 9 medium jars of chutney...lots of lovely chutney stashed away, ready to enhance many a supper or lunch: great with goat's cheese, cheese mac, cold meats etc....

My hero returned in time to rescue me by helping;  clearing and washing up with beetroot deserves a medal!

Pineapple Chutney

In and around Kenilworth, I've noticed the best and cheapest pineapples I can remember. So about six weeks ago, I looked through all my notes to find a recipe for preserving pineapples. Except for some beetroot chutney, the chutney stash was non existent, so I went ahead and the result is delicious.

The chutney is golden speckled through with whole mustard grains, and delicious with curries, cold meats, and in this hot weather, a slice of nicely toasted spelt bread, with goats cheese and pickle with large side salad has made a nice meal. Usually I start with some freshly made soup. With a fresh bunch of watercress from the market I add courgettes, peas etc, and Mr S thinks he is getting watercress soup, and I do not mention the courgettes!

Golden Pineapple Chutney

1 Medium Pineapple
500g cooking apple
250ml water
350ml organic cider vinegar
300g white sugar
1tsp each of black and white mustard seeds
1 tsp salt
2tsp caraway or fennel seeds

Peel the pineapple and chop into small pieces the size you want them to be in the chutney, as they retain the size and shape. Peel, core and chop up the apple. Add the fruit to a large pan, with the water, and simmer gently till soft.

Add the vinegar, sugar, mustard seeds, and salt and simmer, stirring frequently for about 1 hr, until thick. If you like your chutney hot you can add some finely sliced green chili before potting. Add the caraway seeds which you have just 'roasted' quickly in a pan. Ladle into hot sterilized jars and seal.

On our way to Stratford on Saturday I popped a copy of this recipe into Jenny's, and realised that several other people had asked for it, and also since it is written on a card, which I may loose, and this is a firm favourite with Mr S....I needed a place where I would find it easily...here!

When I was in Stratford, I popped into Lakeland to get some new jam jar lids, and was disappointed to find they do just one size. Being a little bit of a recycler, I often ask people for jars, and there are many now which are not the old 1lb size....but I have found a wonderful on line specialist: the Jam Jar Shop....and am very tempted to get a preserving pan too. At the moment I use my Stainless Steel Pressure cooker bottom. I shall think on this, sleep on this, and if in a few weeks time, I have not found one in one of the many local charity shops, then perhaps it will be a present to myself time.......

Six on Saturday - 29 October 2022

It is still really warm, with night time temperatures more like the day time temperatures we would expect at this time of the year.  We have also had plenty of rain, but the soil is still manageable and gardening possible.  Over at SOS group headquarters manned by Jim, other gardeners are joining in, with their six.  Here are mine:

1. Helpful members of  Cyclamen Society on Facebook  helped  identified of this one flowering on the edge of the gravel garden.  Part of the test was going out to smell it, and yes there is a honey like scent. Looking back I realise  seed bought at the same time as when I bought  the white Cyclamen cilicium have turned up pink, and were moved to this spot a couple of years ago. They are smaller and daintier than Cyclamen hederifolium, with a leaf more akin to the Cyclamen coum..

Cyclamen cilicium

2. A few months ago, I was delighted to receive a piece of Persicaria amplexicaulis Golden Arrow  from a WI gardening group friend. With some rain, it is starting to made some lovely foliage. It is lighting up this patch now the Cosmos have been removed. I'm not sure that the surrounding plants quite complement it, so it may get moved to another position.

3. When the Alpine Group visited Avon Bulbs last year, we were invited to take home a pot of  Narcissus New Baby, which were destined for scrap, as they were surplus to requirement.  I came across the muddied nursery label which the squirrels must have unearthed.  The label reads: small scented jonquil hybrid one foot high with several small pale blooms on each stem.  As I clear the garden of top growth from the perennials I keep treading on labels from spring bulbs.  I just hope I haven't planted a miss mash one on top of others. Next spring will tell, and that is why I need to practice patience regarding getting new bulbs planted.

4.  Growing houseplant begonias is something quite new to be.  This leafy one bought at the HPS stall, with no name has been perfect on a high window sill with the light shining through.  It grew and grew and was ready for a trim.  The leaves did not go to waste and ended in a bouquet for IAVOM this week, and I'm not sure now the little cuttings will come on.  Nothing ventured. I shall report back whether they were a success or not in a few months time.

The cuttings on a shady window sill and the begonia, repotted and trimmed back is back looking lovely on its windowsill with the low sun shining through its leaves showing up that rich mahogany border.  Does anyone know its name?  You'll probably also tell me that I ought to have waited till next spring, but the plant really needed cutting back, so if the cuttings are a failure, I shall try again.

In the future Jim mentioned a database of Begonias, since I wrote about my little begonia in the past, I have used the edit button to add this here.

5. Early spring I felt in my bones that the days of the Salix Mount Aso were numbered.  It was right in the middle of the bed by the conservatory, and although it was lovely to see its fluffy pink spring time show, it was short lived, and was not a real asset at other times of the year.  Half of me said leave it till the spring when I could enjoy another season.

After quite some effort of digging it out, there is now a big space......

6. It is the end of the beetroot, and what a success it has been.  It was beetroot chutney making day on Thursday, following my favourite recipe but this time using seed from the garden grown dill and fresh ginger.  This makes a bright colourful chutney to go with winter lunches. There wasn't quite a kg of beetroot, so I added a little more apple and red onion.

That's my lot this week.

Autumn Pursuits

How dare I raise the issue of Autumn when August is not yet over? Well it is cool, and yes I admit to having put the heating on a few times, mainly to warm the house for Jenny who is over from Spain and is feeling the chill. It is raining on and off and light conditions are poor, so naturally one's thoughts turn to autumnal pursuits.

In my case these have been knitting and pickling. I'm knitting up a second pair of leg warmers for Jenny to take back to Spain. Although it was 35 C when she left, it does get cold in the winter and with marble floors, she just wanted to have some legwarmers similar to the ones I had knitted for Lizzie and which she had modelled. We chose the yarn from a wool shop in Warwick, as when we visit Leamington, Web of Wool was closed. Hope Anna forgives me. The yarn we chose had all Jenny's favourite colours and is knitting up just beautifully. The Manos Del Uruguay yarn in silk and merino wool is soft and warm and lustrous.

The yarn comes in a variety of luscious colours and we brought two hanks back, and spent a few minutes deciding which one to use. David who has an excellent eye for colour and design gave the seal of approval: the nutty earthy colours for Jenny, and the turquoise & blue ones for me. Yes, I shall also be knitting myself a pair ready for that time when the cool weather starts. Lizzie wanted some legging and though she would start a trend down under, well one is starting here!

My first pickles of the year are made and are maturing....well the ones that have not yet been eaten. I trawled through my recipe books and also the internet, and developed a hybrid recipe. Usually I make jams etc but this year the batches I have made so far are not up to the usual standard. I have tried various sugars available here for jam but wonder whether the beet sugar here is not as good as cane sugar which I used to get in Swindon.

David is not a pickle or chutney person, and has an aversion to vinegar. I try to get over this by starting my boiling early in the morning and getting the house as well aired as possible before he gets back from work in the evening. David does like Branston with cheese, and having run out of that served some superb well matured Green Tomato chutney made in 2006 by my friend Judith, the extreme knitter. I think the secret is good maturing.

David LIKES the beetroot chutney!

Cotswold Pudding and Pie Company at Kenilworth Market

Its over a year since I moved to this lovely small town. One of the regular things which adds to my contentment here is the weekly market. Contentment is an understatement, glee is more like it. Most weeks I manage to cycle up in rain or shine. One thing I must remember is to lock up my bike by the library thus avoiding having to hold my breath when I lock up my bike right by the temporary generator which emits fumes behind the fish stall.

This is part of my shopping today. Last week I had an egg weighing 103g, which turned out to be a double yoker. No joke for the hen I am sure.

One of the first stall holders to get my five star award at the Kenilworth weekly market was that of the Cotswold Pudding and Pie Co. It was my search for a good egg which led me to Mr Salmon. Well I had tried everywhere, and having had bantams in my garden in Swindon for several years, it had not been possible to match their eggs for taste and freshness - until I tried Mr Salmon's eggs. They come in all sizes and colours, and each week I seek a peep down all the trays to try and find a green one! I take them as they come, politeness demands this of course, but if there is a particularly beautiful one, then this is handed to me, with very good grace.

I have tasted most of Mr Salmon's produce: EXCELLENT Pork pies, meat pies, sausages, boiled ham, bacon and more. The pastry is perfection and all the pork is reared by a member of his family, with Mr Miles's brother curing the pork and making the produce. The Steak and Kidney Pie is a firm favourite and what with builders all around, makes an excellent easy evening meal with fresh veg from the market. Recently when I had missed the market and got a Pork Pie from Waitrose, it failed to please.

I was chatting to Miles today and was delighted to hear that he attends Cirencester Market. That is where my love of good local food markets developed. One thing I used to look forward to when working there was getting out to the market at lunch times. The hot news is that their pies are being hunted down and they are going to supply a deli in Malmesbury. That's another small town where I used to go to the market having left work in Cirencester.

Here is my market day lunch: lovely small slices of pork pie, well they are so tasty these are sufficient to tingle the taste buds, with my home made beetroot chutney and windowsill sprouted alfalfa.

First blackberries of the season

Even though I will be having a nil harvest from the trees in the garden this year, the hedgerows this year will be full of blackberries.  This bowl of large juicy ones is the first of the season picked not far from home.

I've been buying plums, apricots, peaches, and nectarines from the market for preserving....and this week the first of the English cooking apples.  I've made beetroot chutney to the same recipe as last year.  This one teams up very well with pear, walnut and cheese salad.

Pesto

I love Pestos...and frequently look for the best there are with real ingredients.....



It goes on gnocchi which I and Mr S also love...homemade preferably, in breads, on breads, and even as a filling...


Friends even brought back the most fabulous Pistachio Pesto from Sicily as a present last year.

Its no surprise that I got excited that one of our local WI members is currently running a wild garlic pesto workshop.   However because I did not go to the last meeting and had not registered my interest on time, I found out today that I have not only missed the first group but also the second group.

I have been rather in the dumps recently and a short break in Cornwall seems to have got me out of the doldrums.  I cannot thank Pat enough for taking good care of me over three days.  Here is a picture of Pat and her favoured pet Breeze on the beach.  It is just a short walk from her home to this little cove.  Of some of my home made bread, cake, marmalade etc which I took down, it was the Beetroot Chutney which Pat is going to try her hand at.

Today for supper I decided to just go completely off piste and made my own pesto, without even doing any research.  I was preparing pasta with a mushroom and pheasant sauce.  This sounds rather extravagant but to be honest it was a 'breeze'.  My cousin Pat was going to cook up some Venison but the local farm shop had run out and suggested a pair of dressed pheasants instead.  When Pat got out her cash to pay a second pair was put on the counter...It was buy one, or rather a brace of pheasants, which is a pair, get another pair free.  All four birds went into the oven...and we came home with a whole cooked bird.  Yesterday we had a meal with most of the meat which I had made into a 'fricassee' on the hob.  There was really enough for three good helpings, so I kept one back.  It was that portion which I then made into a sauce with saute mushrooms, onions, herbs and my ubiquitous Calvados.

The pesto which I dressed the pasta with, before topping with the pheasant concoction, was made up as follows:

a handful of roasted walnuts
the dregs of the lovely olive oil from Greek Olives in a tin, another present from a dancing friend
all the leaves of my windowsill basil plant which had reached the peak of perfection
some Cave aged goats's cheese from Wookey

It was really a use up....but absolutely delicious.  Except for exceptional pestos such as the pistachio one..in future I shall be exploring the world of Pestos through experiment in my kitchen.

I came across a really splendid blog just by chance and there are also tips from Paola Bacchia on gnocchi as well as Pestos.

Somerset Charcuterie for Saturday Lunch

 Bought at Wells Market for our 'stay at home' Christmas, we enjoyed the last of our Black Pepper and Garlic salami for lunch today:

topped with a few olives which I had marinated in olive oil, with some of my home made preserved lemons, freshly cooked beetroot topped with home made mango chutney, a few leaves, and home made baked pumpkin rolls with Wookey Farm goat's cheese.