As soon as Christmas is done and dusted for the year, I am thinking about the next one.  I like to collect up recipes and gift ideas throughout the year and write them in my Christmas Notebook.  I found a recipe for Plum and Ginger chutney on the NZ Life and Leisure website and added it to the list.  I then realised that I would need to make it now as plums are in season at the moment and they won’t be again before Christmas.  Luckily the recipe says it keeps for over a year and gets better with age. 

I grabbed a couple of kilos of plums for $2.99 a kilo at the vege market on Saturday and got to work.  Luckily this is a chuck it all in the tray and roast it in the oven recipe as it was far too hot to be standing over a pot stirring for a few hours.

Recipe as follows:

Makes 5 – 6 jars (I got 4 and a half)

• 2 kg plums (I used Omega) stones removed and quartered
• 4 onions quartered and thinly sliced
• 100g ginger peeled and thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp sea salt
• 1 cinnamon stick broken in two
• 1 tbsp chilli flakes
• 750g sugar
• 300ml malt vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180° C.  Put all of the ingredients into a large roasting dish and mix all together then put into the oven.  Roast for 2 – 3 hours (I did 2 hours 40 mins) stirring from time to time until it becomes silky and thick.  Cooking time will depend on the moisture content of your plums and the temperature of your oven.  The chutney will continue to thicken a little as it cools.

Once the chutney has reached the desired consistency, spoon into hot sterilised jars then screw on the lids and set aside to cool. 

We had some on a burger on Sunday night and it was delish.