Victoria Plum Chutney the easy way

With a bagful of Victoria Plums from friends, I quickly looked through recipe books and also my own recipes, and devised a different one to use up a Kilo of prepared plums.

To prepare the plums, I wash them first, then as they need to be chopped up, I select the more variable in size and shape and ones that may have small blemishes, since these can be eliminated.  Its the completely prepared fruit which had had the stones removed, and pieces cut out that are weighed to make up the chutney.  Each plum is cut into about 8 pieces.

I now store all my fresh ginger in the freezer.  Having first washed and brushed it, I cut up the large rhizomes into pieces about two centimeters long, and open freeze it, then put them all in a tub in the freezer.  There is now always ginger ready to hand, and from frozen it cuts up very easily into whatever size pieces are needed.  I like to use the dry dates and keep the lovely soft ones for eating fresh with nuts.

Ingredients

1Kg prepared plums
350g cooking onions, peeled and chopped
50g prepared fresh/frozen ginger
100g dried pitted dates
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsps cumin seeds, dry roasted and slightly crushed
300ml organic cider vinegar
100g soft brown sugar, preferably Billington's Light Muscovado from Mauritius

Add all of the above to a large very thick bottomed pan, stir over a moderate heat, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, and continue to cook gently, stirring regularly, to make sure that that nothing is sticking at the bottom of the pan.  The chutney should be thick and pulpy, but do bear in mind that it thickens further as it cools.

Sterilized your jars and have them hot and ready from the oven, then ladel in the chutney using a jamming funnel, cover quickly with a new and clean top, check that the tops are wells sealed down.  When cool, label, and set by in a cool dark cupboard and wait......two to three months at least.

This chutney is wonderful with cold cuts of meat, on the side with vegetable bakes, macaroni cheese etc.

To anyone who is a newby to chutney making, I say:

" Taste the chutney when cool enough, by all means.  However, it is only two, three, or even six months down the line that the lovely depths of flavour start to be produced.  Think of the chutney as a red wine or a port that develops over time.  Chutney is a lovely way of capturing ingredients when they are at their best, preserving them in a sealed and hygienic environment, then with time you realise that you have created something that is greater than the sum of the original ingredients."

By all means use whatever variety of plums you have to use....