Plum Chutney

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Wide, heavy-bottomed preserving pan or large saucepan
• •Wooden spoon with a flat edge
• •4 medium glass jars with vinegar-proof lids
• •Jam funnel (useful but not essential)
• •Fine grater for the ginger and zest

Instructions

1. 1

   Sterilise the jars

   Wash your jars and lids in hot soapy water, rinse them well, then put them on a tray in a low oven, around 120C, until completely dry. Leave them there until you need them. Hot chutney goes into hot jars. Cold jars crack and warm jars sweat. This is one of the few rules worth keeping.

   Old jam jars are perfect, as long as the lids are sound and don't smell of last year's pickle. Vinegar will eat through any lid that isn't properly lined.
2. 2

   Toast the spices

   Put the mustard seeds and crushed coriander seeds into a dry, heavy pan over a medium heat. Shake them around for a minute or so, until the mustard seeds start to pop and the kitchen smells warm and slightly bitter, like an old spice tin opened on a Saturday morning. Trust your nose. The moment they smell ready, they are.

3. 3

   Soften the onions

   Add the onions, garlic, and grated ginger to the pan with the toasted spices and a splash of the vinegar. Cook gently for ten minutes or so, until the onions have collapsed and gone soft and translucent. You're not browning them. You're coaxing them into something sweet and yielding before the plums arrive.

4. 4

   Add the plums and the rest

   Tip in the chopped plums, the rest of the vinegar, the sugar, the cinnamon sticks, cloves, star anise, salt, chilli flakes, and orange zest. Stir everything together. It will look alarming at this stage. Pale, watery, full of unmelted sugar, with whole spices bobbing about. Don't worry. The pan does the work from here.

   A wide, heavy-bottomed pan is the friend of any chutney. The more surface area, the faster the liquid reduces, and the deeper the flavour goes.
5. 5

   Simmer until thick and glossy

   Bring it gently to a simmer and let it bubble away, uncovered, for an hour to an hour and a half. Stir now and then, more towards the end as it thickens and starts to want to catch on the bottom. The chutney is ready when you can drag a wooden spoon across the base of the pan and it leaves a clear channel that holds for a few seconds before the chutney slides back in. The colour will have gone from bright pink-red to a deep, dark, glossy mahogany. The kitchen will smell like Christmas arriving early.

6. 6

   Jar while hot

   Fish out the cinnamon sticks, the star anise, and as many of the cloves as you can find. Spoon the hot chutney into the hot jars, right up to the top. Wipe the rims clean with a damp cloth, screw the lids on tightly, and leave them on the counter to cool. You'll hear the lids pop down as they seal. Label them with the date and put them somewhere cool and dark.

   The chutney is edible the next day but not yet itself. Give it at least a month in the cupboard before you open the first jar. Two months is better. The vinegar mellows, the spices settle, the whole thing becomes the version of itself it was always trying to be.

Chef Tips

• •Use plums that are properly ripe, even slightly past their best. Firm supermarket plums make a thin, sharp chutney. Soft, blushing, almost-too-far plums make a deep, jammy one. The market decides.
• •Don't be tempted to swap the cider vinegar for malt or white wine vinegar. Cider has a softness to it that suits the fruit. Malt is too aggressive and white wine vinegar disappears entirely.
• •A plum chutney lives or dies by what you eat it with. Strong cheddar, a crumbly Lancashire, a wedge of blue cheese on a cold plate. Cold roast pork the day after Sunday lunch. A ploughman's of the kind that doesn't apologise for being simple. Don't waste it on anything too clever.
• •Make a double batch if your pan will take it. Jars of homemade chutney are the best small gift I know. People remember them long after they've forgotten the wine you brought.

Advance Preparation

• •Chutney needs at least four weeks in the jar before opening, ideally eight. It is not a same-day condiment. The flavour matures and rounds out as it sits.
• •Sealed jars keep in a cool, dark cupboard for up to a year. Once opened, store in the fridge and use within a month, though it rarely lasts that long.
• •Best made in September when British plums are at their peak. Victoria plums are the classic choice, but any ripe plum variety will work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 15g)