You’ve made fried courgette flowers, ratatouille, chocolate courgette donuts, courgette marmalade and spiralised seemingly countless squash. What’s left? Time to make chutney. Chutney is a mixture of fruit, vegetables, vinegar, spices and enough sugar to bind it all together. It is usually eaten as a condiment (like Branston pickle or piccalilli) but I can’t swear that the Davinator has not eaten a sneaky chutney sarnie from time to time.

Like ratatouille there are an endless number of chutney recipes on the internet. And to be honest if you cook it long enough and slow enough, ingredients become chutney. This one works for me – the main ingredients seem to ripen at the same time in my garden. It’s based on a recipe from BBC GoodFood which has a wealth of practical and straightforward recipes for home cooks.

Once you’re comfortable with the recipe it’s easy to vary the component fruit and vegetables. The ‘chutney base’ is the vinegar, sugar and spices. Then it’s a squash element, a vegetable element (don’t start on tomato is actually a fruit) and a fruit element.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 500ml (17.5 fluid ounces) cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
• 400g (14 ounces) brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1 tbsp allspice
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard seed
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and diced very small
• 4 onions, chopped
• 1kg (2.2 pounds) courgettes (zucchini), chopped
• 1kg (2.2 pounds) tomatoes, chopped with core removed
• 4 tart eating apples, chopped
• 300g (10.5 ounces) sultanas (raisins)

Method

1. Put the vinegar, 300ml water, sugar and spices in a large deep heavy pan. Heat, stirring regularly, until the sugar dissolves .
2. Add the remaining ingredients onions, courgettes, tomatoes, apples and sultanas) with a tsp of salt.
3. Bring to a simmer then bubble away uncovered for 2 to 3 hours until darkened, thick and chutney-like. Sometimes mine takes longer. I have turned it off over night.
4. Time to sterilise the jars. If you prep 6 250 to 300 ml jars that should be plenty. You can watch this video: jam jars or wash thoroughly in very hot soapy water. Rinse in very hot water then put on a baking sheet in a 140C/fan 120C/gas 1 oven until completely dry.
5. Pour the chutney into the sterilised jars while still hot, seal and leave in a cool dark place. The recipe suggests that you wait for at least 3 weeks before opening. That recipe writer has never met the Davinator. It might improve with age, I’ve never had it stay around long enough to find out.

Thanks for reading the blog. Please let me know if you’re enjoying the recipes, send comments, photos and requests.