Sarahs Kitchen Travels

Category: Pickles, Preserves and Condiments

A collection of free pickle, preserve and condiment recipes from Sarah’s Kitchen Travels by Sarah Gurung

  • Apricot chutney

    Makes approximately 3 standard jars
    Sweet apricot chutney

    In Nepal the sweet chutney is made using a fruit called ‘lapsi’ its mouth puckeringly sour and utterly delicious, it’s also generally unavailable in the west. Apricots are on the other hand readily available. When I was in Mustang, Northern Nepal, it was so sad to see all the traditional apricot trees left abandoned in favour of apples. I started thinking of different ways to make apricots popular again then it struck me, apricots would make a brilliant chutney, and they do.

    Ingredients

    • 250 g | 9 oz dried apricots, soaked for 12 hours in water
    • 15 grams | ½ oz fresh ginger, peeled and finely cut into thin matchsticks
    • 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced 
    • ½ teaspoon panch puran
    • 4 cardamom pods
    • 150 g | 5 ¼ oz granulated sugar
    • 120 ml | ½ cup distilled vinegar
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon crushed chilli
    • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
    • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

    Method

    Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan to medium, add the panch puran and allow the seeds to darken and pop, about 30 seconds. Place the apricots with the soaking liquor and all the remaining ingredients into the pan and bring to the boil.   Once the chutney is boiling reduce the heat so it is gently boiling and cook until the chutney has thickened. The best way to check if your chutney is done is to stir it, when it’s ready it will start to stick on the bottom of the pan and bubble when you stir it.  If you like your chutney very thick you will need to cook it a little longer, stirring regularly as it will stick and burn easily.  Remember the chutney will thicken more as it cools.  Once you are happy with the consistency of the chutney take it off the heat and allow it to cool a little before you spoon it into sterilised jars and seal.  The chutney is ready for eating as soon as it cools but it’s much better if you leave it for a week so the flavours can develop.* Dried apricots vary widely in the amount of water they will absorb, cover the apricots with 2 cm | 1inch of water.  If you find they soak up all the water after a few hours it’s fine to add more, top them up to just below the tops of the apricots this time around.  

  • Love Apple Jelly

    Makes approximately three jars
    omato jelly, this may sound unusual but it's delicious with savoury and sweet dishes

    This recipe is a tribute to my mother’s last cookery book and her ‘Love Apple Marmalade’. In the early 1980’s I worked with her on this and made so much marmalade the recipe is burned into my brain on auto pilot. I never wanted to see another jar of tomato marmalade, until of course I did want to make it again. I have given it a bit of a modern twist to go well with savoury food.

    Ingredients

    • 1 kg | 2 lbs fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
    • 100 grams | 3 ½ oz red peppers seeded and roughly chopped
    • 1 lemon, roughly chopped as small as possible, split the seeds open
    • 1 teaspoon ground timur
    • 2 star anise
    • 1 cinnamon stick
    • 500 ml | 1 pint of water
    • ¼ teaspoon salt
    • Sugar, depending on the how much juice you have after straining*
    • 1 teaspoon chilli flakes, optional to add with the sugar

    Method

    Place the tomatoes, peppers, lemon with the seeds, water, and spices into steep sided pan, gradually bring everything to the boil. Cook the mixture until all the vegetables are very soft strain the cooked tomatoes through a jelly bag overnight.

    Next day, sterilise your jam jars. Measure the juice from the vegetables and return it to the pan. Measure an equal weight of sugar to the volume of the juice you have*.  Add the sugar and chilli flakes to the pan. Bring to a fast boil and cooked until it reaches the setting stage, let the jelly cool 5 to 10 minutes before pouring into jars and sealing.

    * 100 ml of juice needs 100 grams of sugar