Pumpkin Chutney

This chutney is a massive favourite of mine. The flavours mature so well after months of storage, but you can eat it straight away. I used to always have to make this for a friend of mine for his Christmas present every year & that was all he ever asked for, which did make life rather easy! It goes well with all meats, beautiful on sandwiches, or just with a cheese platter. As it cooks I tend to mash up the majority of the pumpkin pieces, & you do have to keep an eye on it towards the end of the cooking process as it will stick to the bottom of the pan as it gets thicker. I usually make a double of this recipe, which usually gives about 9 large jars.

Pumpkin Chutney.

1.25 kg pumpkin, peeled, chopped into bite size pieces.
6 tomatoes, skinned & chopped.
3 onions, chopped.
1 cup raisins.
2 cups sugar.
1 tbsp salt.
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger.
12 black peppercorns.
1 tbsp allspice berries, crushed.
4 garlic cloves, crushed & chopped.
4 cups white vinegar.

1. Put all ingredients into a saucepan.
2. Bring to the boil & simmer until it thickens, which should take about 50 minutes.
3. Spoon into sterilised jars, seal & label.
4. This is a long-keeping chutney & tastes much nicer after several months.

Garlic-Tomato Chutney

So, the vegie patch is a gift that keeps on giving. I still have a million zucchinis, but today I picked 4kgs of tomatoes. What to do?? Make a chutney! This one is totally delicious, but does not make a great amount. With this recipe (plus an added 1/4 of ingredients due having just over 2 kg to spare for this recipe) I made only 6 medium size jars.



Garlic-Tomato Chutney

2 kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
20 garlic cloves, peeled & roughly chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
½ cup raisins
1½ cups sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 chillies, seeds removed & chopped.
Zest & juice of 1 lemon
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds
½ t2p fenugreek
1½ cups white wine vinegar

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large pan.
2. Bring to the boil & simmer for about 1 ½ hours, or until the chutney is thick, stirring frequently.
3. Spoon into hot sterilised jars & seal.
4. The cooking time will depend on how watery the tomatoes are.

Inbread Cats.

Well, apparently there is a new internet sensation, set to rival planking. It involves cats. And bread. How funny can this be?? Absolutely hilarious actually.

Clearly Jeremy & I must keep up with the trends. Obviously it is how we stay so youthful & fabulous ((??))! Unfortunately for Remy, it was her time to truly shine in a fad. Fortunately for us she is so laid back & good humoured. Despite the face - she purred all the way during her photo shoot. Check out the website, hopefully more people will add their poor cats, so that Jem & I are not the only mean ones. The website is: http://www.breadingcats.com/

Remy is a 10 year old ragdoll cat. She goes the the vet every year for her check up. Every year the vet listens to her heart with a stethoscope. Every year the vets say she is in fabulous health. Until her last check up. The vet listened earnestly with the stethoscope (we have this vet every year). This time though, she placed the stethoscope down, looked at us seriously, & I thought she had dreadful news. Her words of wisdom were:

"I assume she is alive, I assume she has a heart which beats. But in all honesty I have never heard her heart at all since I've been looking after her. She purrs too loudly".