Matron's Spiced Christmas Chutney

Here is a wonderful recipe which I adapted from a basic apple chutney recipe, but with a Christmas spices flavour. You must prepare your spiced vinegar in advance. Bring 1 pint of malt vinegar to the boil with generous quantities of your favourite spices. I used star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Boil gently for just a minute or so, then leave all the spices in the vinegar to cool down completely, ideally leave for at least 24hours or longer for the flavours to develop.

Peel and chop 4lbs of cooking apples
peel and chop 1lb of pumpkin and dice into roughly half inch cubes
chop 1lb onions (red onions if you like)
3oz fresh grated ginger
1lb brown sugar
grated rind and juice of an orange
4oz dried cranberries
4oz dried mixed fruit
half a pint of mulled wine (gluhwein)

Put all the ingredients except the sugar, into a large pan and bring to the boil and simmer until reduced. This might take 30 minutes, but there is enough pectin in the apples and pumpkin for a good consistency. Then add all the sugar to the mixture and stir gently and continue to simmer until it has reduced further. You may like to add more of your favourite ground spices (I do!)

This recipe is a slightly sweeter chutney but you can decrease the sugar if you like, the flavour improves on keeping - fantastic on cold meats or cheese!