My local friends will have heard of the twice weekly vegetable stall at Rocky Mountain Nursery up in the Mendips close by the Masebury Old Railway station. There are often good bargains to be had. My most recent purchase was a wooden tray full of beautiful fresh leaved beetroot. There were loads, and several friends called to come and collect a bunch or two, and also some distributed to neighbours, together with some lovely new season pink garlic.
When my friend Maggie came to pick up some of my already cooked beetroot, she said that during her pregnancy one of her delights was beetroot chutney...that inspired me to make some chutney. I used to print off labels I designed, but now just write on the reused jars with pen, this week at least matching the colour pen to the jam jar lids, except of course for the small black lid! These jars contain 1.5Kg beetroot, red onions and bramley apples...and several hours of chopping, and cooking!
I followed William Drabble's recipe on Great British Chefs, but substituted Somerset Cider Vinegar for the red wine vinegar. The recipe lacked weight for the Bramley apple, and onions, and I had to use my judgement as both the apples and onions I had were very large. I like dill and this is what encouraged me to try this recipe. I've made beetroot chutney several times.
Next time I made a beetroot chutney it will probably be an amalgamation of techniques from William Drabble's recipe of cooking the beetroot in the vinegar/sugar mixture from the start, with some of the ingredients from my other beetroot chutney recipes.
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