Kitchen Krafts - A Bit of Home - How to make Chutney

As all of you South Africans out there can imagine, it is hell without your little bit of Africa, at least in the kitchen, so I set about making my own version of Mrs. B's Chutney. It takes a good day to make.

This is what I did:

Firstly the ingredients:

• 200g Dried Peaches
• 300g Dried Apricots
• 50g Sultanas
• 1,9l Red Wine Vinegar
• 1.6kg Sugar
• 325g Onions
• 75g Salt
• 50g Cayenne Pepper

Place the fruit in a pot and cover with the vinegar. Allow to soak overnight.

After soaking through the night, they will look something like this:

Allow to boil in the vinegar for a couple of minutes, until the fruit is soft.

Drain the fruit, but do not throw away the vinegar, you will be using it again after this step!

If you have a processor (mine is still on it's way :-(  ), whiz your fruit into smaller pieces. If you don't have a machine, then chop the fruit by hand - be careful it can be extremely hot!

Return your vinegar to the pot, weigh out your sugar and add it to the vinegar.

Switch your stove back on to a low temperature and stir the sugar and vinegar mixture until it starts to thicken slightly.

Once all the sugar has dissolved, return your fruit to the vinegar solution and add the onions as well.

Measure out the Salt and the Cayenne Pepper (if you want a milder sort of chutney, only add half the amount of the pepper)

Add the salt and cayenne mixture to your pot.

Stir your mixture and allow to simmer for a good 2 hours on a low heat. Be sure to continually stir the pot, otherwise it will start to burn!

This is how it starts to look after about half an hour:

And close on 2 hours:

Prep your containers:

And check the consistency of your chutney, it shouldn't be very runny, if you are used to using chutney (or are South African :-D) you will have a pretty good idea of how it needs to look. It can be misleading by checking it in the pot, so take a spoonful out on to a plate and allow it to cool, you will see immediately if it is good!

Once it is perfect, remove from the stove. I use a potato masher at this point to mush my fruit so that it is more of a jammy consistency, if you like to have the bigger fruit pieces feel free to leave them that way!

Fill into your containers, seal and label:

And you should be sorted for a little while! 

For all of you homesick South Africans out there who are asking themselves how good it is......well the proof is in the pudding so to speak, but I can tell you now that it definitely takes the edge off being away from home having this in your pantry!

What is your recipe, tip or trick from your kitchen this week? Share it below, and leave a comment. It would be wonderful if you could visit one or two of the other posted links as it is always nice to have someone come and see all your efforts.

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I will be sharing this at the blogs below, so go on over and have a look at all the other talented people out there!