Dark Days of Cheese and Chutney

Sunday, November 02, 2008

In the middle of summer, it’s incredibly easy to forget that winter exists.  Despite Winter Harvest and the Fair Food Farmstand, if you don’t put anything aside for winter, things can get rather monotonous for local eating in the (now imminent) dark days.  Luckily, this year we managed to put some things aside: blanched green beans, frozen blueberries, frozen tomatoes, pickles, and - most successfully - chutney. 

My first experience with chutney came from Indian restaurants, so I always thought of it as something sweet to counteract the spice.  While chutney is of Indian origin, the basic concept of sweet-and-sour, fruits-and-vegetables is elastic enough to fit any climate or crop.  Working from a recipe we brought back with us from London, we managed to use up our surplus zucchini (and who doesn’t have too many of those?) and onions by simply adding tomatillos and apples.  It’s an incredibly simple concept:cut everything to an approximate size to standardize the cooking time, add sugar and vinegar, and let it cook for a long, long time.  Once again, time is the most important ingredient. 

Yesterday, we enjoyed a simple lunch of PBC‘s Walt Whit, local cheddar, and our chutney.  Next summer, when the cold days of winter are remote, I hope I’ll remember this lunch - and will then be prompted to set aside some surplus, pull out the vinegar and sugar, and put a pot of chutney on the stove. 

P.S.  There are a million chutney recipes available online.  Unfortunately, the one we used is no longer available, though this one from the same cookbook would do nicely.  To be honest, the entire series of River Cottage Handbooks looks great.