I have a kilo of apricots sitting in the kitchen today, waiting to be transformed into chutney. Im going to be trying a new recipe, as ive never made chutney with apricots before, just tomatoes, so the outcome, while not guaranteed, will certainly be interesting.
Chutneys as we know them, were and are still an English thing, though now, along with the English, theyve spread all over the world. Originally though, they were absorbed, like a lot of other english flavours, from Indian foods. During the British Raj, a lot of english gentry developed a taste for the spices of the sub continent, and so they tried to recreate those tastes at home. The difference between an indian "chatni", and an english chutney was vast however. This was due to many factors, such as not having the right fruits or vegetables "back home", or access to the right spices. There was also the english cooks to consider, many of whom had no idea what indian food was like other than "foreign". Even if you had an indian cook, which became rather popular at one stage, you still had to change things a little to take into account the palates of those who were new to indian foods, so chatni changed from a fresh fruit or vegetable relish, into a cooked condiment usually made with fruits, and befitting its colonial past, often dried fruits as well as spices and sugar and vinegar. It also appealed to Victorian frugality by being a way to use up gluts of fruits, and could even absorb green fruit, and make a condiment that would keep for a long time.
By the same token, the tastes of the english influenced indian cookery. Many indians were, after all, employed by the brits as cooks and the like, and even though some (a small minority) of the british would become "indianophiles" and indeed "go native", at first they all had english palates, used to the blander, english food, so things began to be adapted and changed. In the 1960s in London there was even a name for Anglicised indian dishes, which were referred to as "Chutney Mary" by the indians themselves.
Almost every country that was once a part of the British Empire, now has a taste for cooked chutneys (fresh relish/chutneys still exist and are still popular but im talking here about the cooked and preserved style of chutney), and theyre big business. Looking at the supermarket shelves here youll usually see at least half a dozen kinds of commercial chutneys, made with everything from mangos to green tomatoes, and theres few things better than chutney to have with a sharp cheddar.
Theyre not difficult to make at home though, and really, are just a combination of fruit, onions, vinegar, sugar, salt and spices. Sometimes dried fruits are added, sometimes all the fruits are dried, and the spices are as varied as the cooks that make them, though chilli in some form is almost always added.
In any case im going to give this a try today. This is the recipe im going to use, pretty much a generic one, thats all over the web in slightly different versions, that are all basically the same, and i think based on an Elizabeth David recipe originally. A lot of them have sultanas in them, but since sultanas make me heave, and are even worse when theyre cooked....think flabby little wrinkled things like baby toes.....ewwwwww!, i just leave them out.
Fresh Apricot Chutney
1.5 kilos of apricots, stoned and chopped
2 onions finely chopped
1 tablespoon salt
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (lightly bashed in the mortar and pestle)
1 teasoon mustard seeds
3 cloves of garlic thinly sliced
pinch of clove (optional)
1 small red chilli finely minced (optional)
The original said to cooke the apricots with everything else till very soft, then remove, and cook the liquid down to a syrup. Personally i prefer to leave the fruit in and just cook the whole thing down. The fruit will disintegrate, but thats what i want, rather than chunks of fruit. Its a matter of taste. when cooked pour into hot sterilised jars and seal.
I have most of the ingredients, bar one or two, so if i manage to get out to the shops today, i should be able to give this a try today. Watch this space
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