Pear, apple, onion and raisin chutney.

I made some chutney for the first time the other day and it is delicious. I thought I'd share the recipe. I got 5 little jars out of it and 1 fresh pasta sauce tub like the one you get in all the supermarkets next to the garlic bread and fresh pasta.

5 pears
1 cooking apple
2 onions
½ lb raisins
½ teaspoon of chilli powder or cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 garlic clove
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg
Juice and grated rind of 1 lemon
½lb soft brown sugar
½pint white vinegar

1. Chop the pears and peel, core and chop the apple and onions.
2. Crush the garlic.
3. Put all of the ingredients into a large pan with the vinegar and stir well with a wooden spoon.
4. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.
5. Reduce to a simmer and continue simmering for around 2 hours, stirring occasionally, or until it looks like chutney.
6. Spoon into still warm sterilized jars.

To sterilize your jars put them in a clean pan with cold water and bring them to a fast boil then leave on boil for at least 10 minutes, while this is happening heat your oven to 120 degrees celsius. Use tongs or something similar to lift the jars from the water and place on a clean oven tray and place in the hot oven for another 10 minutes to dry completely. It is best to time your chutney being ready with the jars coming from the oven as you need to put the hot chutney into hot jars so that the glass doesn't crack when mixing different temperatures or cause bacteria to grow by using cold unclean jars.

If you have a dishwasher you can clean your jars in there and then spoon in the mix while they are still hot.

The chutney is delicious and can be eaten straight away but I've been told by people with more experience than I have that leaving it to mature improves the recipe even more. You can leave it for up to 12 weeks in a dark cool place.