January Challenge: Day 5

Friends came round today, which presented an excellent opportunity to eat up some leftover nibblies from New Year.

Today was also about preserves. I recently picked a monster zucchini weighing 1.88kg, and also have several lovely golden nugget pumpkins from L at 500m2. This really is more than we can eat, so I decided to make a squash chutney from these tasty summer vegies. I can give some away to friends and family, and keep a bit for winter. It took 5 hours to make but I now have some jars of delicious chutney that don't look like they were made from zucchini and pumpkin.

I even managed to seal the jars

I started with this recipe for Marrow Chutney, but found that it needed some extras to get it working well, possibly because my zucchini wasn't very watery. Now I'm looking forward to picking more vegies!

Squash Chutney (makes approx 8 cups)

1.5kg peeled and chopped zucchini and pumpkin

1 large onion, chopped

1 large apple, chopped

250g sultanas

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp cumin seed

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds

2 tbsp sea salt

450g sugar (2 1/2 cups)

750ml white vinegar

juice of 1 lemon

Place all the ingredients into a very large pot (the wider the better) and bring to the boil, then simmer for 4 hours, stirring regularly, until it has reduced and thickened. While it is still hot, spoon into hot sterilised jars and seal (this process depends on the kind of jars you are using).

I found that I had to squash the squash (!) because it was quite chunky and I wanted it to be more spreadable.

Right now I'm feeling very satisfied with myself and thinking I should join the CWA or enter the Royal Easter Show in 2013, although I might need a bit more practice...