Onion marmalade

This doesn't taste of onions, and can be flavoured with rosemary sprigs instead of the caraway seeds.

Ingredients

2 1/2 pounds onions sliced into thin rings
3 tablespoon salt
2 pounds granulated sugar
17 fluid ounce vinegar
1 1/2 tsp cloves in a piece of muslin
2 tsp caraway seeds

Method

1. Mix together salt and onions and leave to stand for one hour. Rinse and dry.
2. Dissolve sugar in vinegar in pan and add muslin bag. Simmer for five minutes and then add onions and caraway seeds or rosemary sprigs.
3. Simmer for two to three hours, skimming off any scum until a translucent jam is formed.
4. Ladle into hot jars. Improves with keeping. Lasts two years.

Green Mango Chutney

The mangos are appearing on the trees here now, but are still green. For those windfalls, and trees that seem overloaded I've given this a try. It takes ten mangos to make eight jars, so it really is for mango growing areas. Green mangos are very (very) bitter, hence the seemingly large amount of sugar.

Ingredients
10 green Mangoes cut into slices ( about six cups)
1 cup vinegar
3 and 1/4 cups sugar
1 and 1/2 cups raisins
1/4 cup chopped ginger root
2 chillies, chopped and deseeded.
1 finely chopped clove garlic
1/3 cup sliced onion
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method
1. Dissolve sugar in warmed vinegar and boil for five minutes.
2. Add everything else and boil to reach desired consistency. taste and sweeten if needed.
3. Ladle into hot jars .

By using white vinegar and sugar you get a pale green/yellow chutney, but by using malt vinegar and/or brown sugar you get a much darker colour and all together different flavour.

Apple jelly ( never fail recipe)

This recipe is an easy starter recipe for people wanting to make jam type jelly for the first time. Apples have plenty of pectin and the addition of lemon juice means this jelly is almost guaranteed to set.

The herb that is added can be varied according to your tastes, I know my husband loves it with sage, but I prefer the more traditional mint. The jelly is ideal with a roast or with cold meats in salads or sandwiches.

Ingredients

2 pounds of apples roughly chopped (inc skin and cores, when chopping be careful not to chop seeds as this will add a bitter taste to the jelly. Add whole cores for the pectin)
3 pints water (or dry cider for an even richer flavour)
Bunch mint ( 3-4 tbsp chopped plus a few nice sprigs)( or chosen herb, eg sage, thyme, tarragon or lavender flowers)
Few strips of lemon rind
granulated sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Method

1. Tie together the sprigs of herbs and lemon rind. Add to a pan with the chopped apple with two pints of liquid.
2. Bring to the boil then simmer for twenty five minutes until the apples are pulpy.
3. Strain through a jelly bag/ tea towel/ pillow case ( freshly laundered on a hot wash) in a sieve. This should stop dripping after about three hours.
4. Return the pulp to the pan with the other pint of liquid and simmer for another twenty minutes. Strain as before.
5. Measure your total liquid back into the pan and add the lemon juice.
6. Boil for ten minutes and then add the sugar (one pound per seventeen fluid ounces of liquid) and stir to dissolve. Continue to boil to setting point.
7. Cool the liquid for a few minutes and add the chopped herbs.
8. Pour into hot jars and seal.

Apple Chutney

I've got a bit of a theme going on here due to a surfeit of tomatoes, both red and green. This apple chutney really is delicious though, and it's using some of my early crop of green peppers as well. This makes about eight jars and is one of the easiest chutney recipes you will ever come across.

Ingredients
12 medium-sized tart apples, peeled and cored
6 green tomatoes ( good size)
4 small onions, peeled
3 large green capsicum ( peppers)
1 cup raisins
1 litre white vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp mustard seeds

Method

1. Chop up the vegetable and fruit and put in a large pan.
2. Add everything else.
3. Bring to the boil and then cook gently for thirty minutes or until thick enough.
4. Ladle into hot jars and tap to remove air bubbles.

Red Tomato Chutney

This red tomato chutney can be made with different herbs and spices to give flavours of different regions of the world. My favourite varieties have cardamon and mint for a taste of the east, but basil, star anise, cumin or turmeric would be equally effective.

Ingredients

3tbsp sesame oil (or plain vegetable oil)
10 oz coarsely chopped onion
1 head garlic, chopped
3oz grated ginger
2-3 red chillies deseeded and cut into strips
2 pound firm red tomatoes, peeled and de-seeded
4oz soft brown sugar ( or jaggery)
8floz red wine vinegar
6 cardamon pods
3oz chopped fresh mint

Method

1. Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and chillies until the onion starts to colour.
2. add the tomatoes and cook for fifteen minutes. (I have a glut of cherry tomatoes, and life's too short to peel an de-seed them..so I just chop them.)
3. Add the sugar and vinegar and bring to the boil.
4. Boil until thickened, for about thirty minutes. Remove from the heat.
5. Grind the cardamon pods and stir in. Stir in the mint.
6. Ladle into hot jars. It is ready to eat in one month and will keep for a year.