Apricot Chutney

Just as the apricots were ripening in the garden, we found we had a hankering for chutney. The picture in our minds was of mango chutney, but mangoes here are expensive, even when local and we had apricots for free.  We thought it would be a good use of our ripening apricots to substitute these for mangoes in a recipe. So that is what we did and we came up trumps!

This chutney is a delicious and delicately flavoured condiment which can be served with curries, cooked meats and cheeses. The recipe was adapted from an Indian mango chutney recipe. It is worth putting in the full range of spices suggested to get fragrance into the chutney. Thankfully we had all the spices except for the fresh ginger and the black cumin seeds. 


Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh ginger - peeled and chopped very finely
2 cloves garlic - peeled, crushed and chopped to a puree consistency
1 red chilli - finely sliced - may include seeds according to taste and strength of chilli
2 teaspoons whole nigella seeds (otherwise known as mustard seeds, black cumin or ajenuz)
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed
quarter teaspoon ground cumin
quarter teaspoon turmeric
5 cardamom pods
quarter teaspoon ground cloves
quarter teaspoon ground cinnamon
quarter teaspoon salt 
1200 grams apricots, stones removed, chopped in halves or quarters, skins on
400 grams (7 ozs)  white granulated sugar
250 mls (8 fluid ozs) white wine vinegar

• Place the apricots, sugar and vinegar in a large heavy saucepan or preserving pan. Leave to one side for the moment.
• In a  nonstick frying pan, warm the oil and add the ginger, garlic and red chilli. Let it sizzle for about a minute, turning with a spatula.
• Next add all the spices to the hot oil in the frying pan and let these cook for a further minute. Keep turning with a spatula. Do not allow the spices to burn.
• Empty the hot oil mixture over the apricots in the saucepan. Bring this gently to the boil, stirring to ensure it is well mixed and the sugar does not burn on the bottom of the saucepan.

This is what it looks like when you have tipped the spices over the apricots
 and mixed it all together

• Let the chutney simmer for an hour. At the end of cooking, remove the cardamom pods with a spoon - it shouldn't be too difficult to find them!

Here is the chutney after simmering for an hour. At this point your kitchen will smell heavenly.

• Turn out heat and place in sterilised jars. Tighten lids whilst still hot so that a vacuum forms upon cooling.

This chutney should keep for at least a year at room temperature. Refrigerate jar after opening.