Warming Spiced Apple Chutney

Baby it’s cold outside. I’m not kidding, it’s horrible. Last night the torrential rain and horrific winds woke me up from a deep sleep. All I wanted to do was curl up under the sheets and dream away…

Zzzzz…

But it was soon time to wake up and get on with university work. After sitting in front of a screen all day I just wanted to unwind. So what better way to relax than to make chutney? Okay, that sounded less nerdy and a lot cooler in my mind at the time. So I had a bag of Gala apples staring at me because I bought them cheap at the supermarket last week and had barely touched them. I fear I may have hurt the apples’ feelings.

Sorry apples. Let me make it up to you…

Ingredients (makes one cup of apple chutney)

7 medium eating apples, peeled, cored and quartered
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 cloves
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
¼ tsp star anise powder
¼ tsp fennel powder
Pinch of cardamom powder
Pinch of salt (helps to bring out the flavours of all the spices)
1 tsp chilli flakes (or more if you dare)

Method

1. Mix together the apples and sugar. Leave on a low heat until the juice begins to seep out of the apples. When there is juice in the pan you can increase the heat (this is just so the sugar doesn’t burn). Don’t stir the mixture with a spoon, simply swirl it in the pan if you want nice big pieces of apple in your chutney.

2. When the sugar begins to caramelise and the mixture reduces to thick syrup add the ginger, star anise powder, fennel powder, cardamom powder, salt and chilli. Cook on a very low heat for 2-3 minutes then remove from the heat. The heat left in the pan should be enough to finish cooking the spices perfectly.

3. Fill the chutney into a sterilized glass jar and keep in the fridge. It should keep well for a few months. Enjoy on toast, in your favourite sandwiches, with curries or anything else you like!

Wow, that was quick! Good job too because I’m really sleepy. Night night world…