Christmas Chutney

One of my staple gifts to people is to make a mini home made hamper full of goodies. The process for this starts in the summer when we go blackberrying and I make a batch of blackberry jam. This year they'll also contain (look away now if you're related to me or teach my son ;-)):

Christmas chutney
Chilli jam
Orange and peppermint cremes
Blackberry jam
Chocolate truffles
Fudge or peanut brittle (haven't decided yet and it depends on storage/ease to make!)
Christmas biscuits
Mincemeat

The chutney recipe I made was maybe in hindsight not the best as it looks very much like mincemest. But it tastes lovely so it can't be all that bad...

Yet again it's a tweaked Delia recipe. It should have contained prunes but stupid me got stone in prunes that were a royal pain in the backside to prepare for the pudding so I ditched the rest of the packed. After a rummage through the cupboard for some other dried fruits I found a packed of dried nectarines. Excited by this discovery I thought they would make a good substitute for the prunes. Until I opened them and found them a bit past their best. Not suprising really given that they were sell by August 2008. Oops. A packet of dried pears went similar and I finally settled on the following combination...

You need
300g ready-to-eat dried apricots
350g dried cranberries
250 pitted dates
450g onions, peeled
570 ml cider vinegar
50g salt
2 tablespoons grated fresh root ginger
1/4 grated nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp ground mace
1/2 tsp ground cloves
450g demerara sugar

Lob the fruit and onions into a food processor and blitz till mushy (you don't have to do this with the cranberries if you prefer lumps in your chutney). Meanwhile heat the vinegar, ginger and salt in a preserving pan till boiling. Add the mushed fruit and onion mix and the spices and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for about an hour. You can tell when it's ready as there will be a clean line left in the pan when you scrape a wooden spoon through it. Bottle into sterilised jars and leave to mature for at least a month. Excellent served with cheese and cold (fake) meats.