Cottage Smallholder Plum Chutney or Damson Chutney
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chutney and Pickles, Jam Jelly and Preserves | 222 comments
a wicker basket full of wild plums
This chutney recipe works well with plums, wild plums or damsons. It does not need months to mature and keeps well
I had some spare time today so finally retrieved the stock pot from Danny, swooshed it out with bicarbonate of soda to get rid of the taint of clove chutney (see Tricks and Tips below) and found the plum chutney recipe from Anne Mary’s old cook book. This was going to be the base of our own Cottage Smallholder Chutney.
I had collected three pounds of windfall wild plums yesterday and simmered them last night for 20 minutes in 75 ml of white wine vinegar. This is Delia’s canny trick to avoid stoning fresh plums for chutney (use some of the vinegar that you are going to use for your brew). This morning, grabbing a handful at a time, it was easy to find the stones and remove them (our wild plum stones are tiny, barely a centimetre long).
At breakfast we studied Anne Mary’s recipe and decided how we would change it to create a plum chutney that we would be proud of. Danny had to go to London so pinpointed his essential ingredients for our chutney – balsamic vinegar and juniper berries. As I was the one who ruined the last “Let’s make our own” batch with too many cloves, I decided that our chutney was definitely going to work this time.
There was a clove shaped crisis of confidence. And consequently the alterations that I made today were incrementally smalll. This meant hours of tasting, comparisons and retasting, until I felt quite queasy from ingesting so much chutney. (At least a jar without lunch). It has now simmered (tiny bubbles barely breaking the surface) for five hours. When you draw a wooden spoon through the chutney, it is thick enough to see where you have been. It is finally done, and approved for release. We have made a great plum chutney, extra fruity and piquant.
Danny returned exhausted from London and sniffed the aroma as he walked into the kitchen. There was a long silence as he grabbed a spoon and rushed to the stock pot for a taste. His response was positive. Our recipe is below..
Our latest Plum and Tamarind Chutney recipe is here.
Tricks and Tips:
- How do I get rid of tainted smells in pots?
If your cooking pot or container is tainted with the smell of the last resident (curry, tomato sauce etc). Sprinkle with a good tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into it and add a good splosh of hot water. Rub the solution over all surfaces and leave for two minutes. Rinse well in cold water.
- How do I sterilise jars and lids?
The sterilising method that we use is simple. Just before making the jam, I quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160c/140c for fan assisted. When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The jars will stay warm for quite a while. I only use plastic lined lids for preserves as the all-metal lids can go rusty. I boil these for five minutes in water to sterilise them. If I use Le Parfait jars, I do the same with the rubber rings.
| Cottage Smallholder Plum Chutney or Damson Chutney |
- 3lbs/1350g wild plums/damsons/eating plums
- 1lb/450g of apples (cored but not skinned). Chopped fine. Cooking apples are best but eating apples would do at a pinch.
- 1 lb/450g onions chopped fine
- 10.5 ozs/300g dried apricots (chopped at least into eight)
- 7 ozs/200g dried raisins (chopped into four)
- Half lb-1lb/225g-450g of soft brown sugar, depending on how sweet your wild plums/damsons/eating plums are. We’d usehalf a lb of sugar for eating plums but used 1lb for this batch as we were using wild plums (these are very tart like damsons).
- 2 large cloves of garlic chopped fine
- Half tsp of cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of allspice powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1and a half pints/750 ml of white wine vinegar
- 1 small hot chilli
- 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
- 5 juniper berries
- 10 black peppercorns
- Stone the plums and if big enough cut into slices.
- Chop the apples, onions, raisins and apricots.
- Place all ingredients in a large heavy bottomed saucepan and bring slowly to a gentle boil. Turn the heat down immediately and simmer very gently (tiny bubbles just breaking the surface on the lowest heat) for at least five hours until the mixture has broken down and thickens.
- Stir from time to time and more towards the end. If your simmering point is higher than ours, your chutney will be ready sooner. Take a peek every half hour or so. The chutney will thicken as it cools.
- When ready pour into sterilised jars and cover with plastic lined metal lids (how do I sterilise jars and lids? See Tips and Tricks above).
Leave a reply
Hi Samantha
Our plum harvet is bad this year too.
I reckon that you could make this with greengages. You’d need less sugar. Add it incrementally to taste. The vinegar is the preservaing agent in this recipe.
Your recipe looks lovely. Our plum trees have failed miserably this year following a bumper crop last year. Can I make this with Greengages as I have now bought all the ingredients but have no plums? My friend has bucket loads on her tree and it would be lovely to use some.
Hi Clive
Great to have your feedback. It would be lovely with fresh ginger!
When I designed this recipe I tried to use spices that most people would have on their spice shelf so as to cut the cost a bit but you can’t beat fresh ingredients.
It worked so well with nisperos. Couple of changes necessary for the second batch though. Halved the amount of cinnamon and used a big lump of grated fresh ginger. We have had friends asking for another jar but they only get it if they are special friends!
So, now you know. If you have friends in Spain just get them to make a huge pan load and ask them to bring you some.
Thanks for a great recipe.
Hello Jules
We have blossom on our plum trees and will get fruit August/September so I’m very envious of you!
Thanks for your chutney recipe – sounds delicious. It’s fun making up chutney recipes isn’t it.
One day I will taste nisperos fruit!
Hello from sunny Spain where my nisperos tree is flourishing. I’m just about to start on my 4th batch of chutney. I made the first batch with a recipe made up as I went along but it was so popular that it’s been repeated. It’s very simple with nisperos being the main ingredient and includes red onion, celery, garlic, apple, juice from my own lemon trees and the zest from my own oranges. Adding both brown and white sugar together with a good dollop of virgin olive oil & seasoning – it’s tangy yet has a sweet background flavour. Delicious. Unlike Clive I eat the nisperos fruit with skin on.
Hi Clive
Thanks for dropping by. I’d love to hear how the chutney turns out with the fruit of the nispero tree. I have never heard of this fruit. The sharp flavour would make it ideal for this recipe.
Best sounding recipe I have found. Here in Spain I have a Nispero tree. A yellow/orange colour fruit with a plum texture and tough skin that is easy to peel off.If you were to eat them as a fruit then the skin would always be taken off. The fruit has anywhere between 3 and 6 stones. Flavour is a bit sharp.
The fruit is hardly ever seen far from where it is grown because it does not travel well. Heavy rain can bruise it even.
I am so tired of seeing so much fruit wasted that this year (during the next 2 – 3 weeks) I am having a go at this tempting recipe. I will let you know.
Hi Marie
I like our chutney too. I think that it’s all down to just including fruit in the mix.
Hope that the frozen plums worked out for you. I’d love to hear how you got on!
Hi I made the plum chutney in August and it was so good, we have just finished it this month. i had some plums in the freezer 6lbs and my dad has begged me to make some more so I’ve a pot on at the moment. Hope the frozen plums work as well as the fresh ones. It does seem a little waterier at this stage though, here’s hoping it goes well