Marrow Chutney

A week or so of neglect on the plot, and we returned to find that our squash had grown hugely, with the butternut squash almost ready to harvest, and several courgettes turned into marrows.  We were keen on making marrow bread, but this recipe only needs 225g of marrow – one of ours weighs 4.5kg alone – so it was clear more serious action needed to be taken !

And so it was that we decided to turn some of our glut into chutney first, then use left overs for bread or cake, perhaps attempt to ‘stuff’ some, and donate the rest to the forthcoming Harvest Festival at our village chapel.  Making chutney also gave us the chance to use up some of our glut of tomatoes and chillies.

The recipe we used is based on the River Cottage chutney recipe from the River Cottage Cookbook, with a few tweaks of course.

Ingredients (makes 5 jars) –

1kg Marrow
1kg Tomatoes
500g Sultanas
500g Soft brown sugar
500g Cooking apples
500g Onions
400ml White wine vinegar
3 Chillies (or to your taste)
12 Cloves, 2tbsp Coriander, 2 pieces fresh Ginger (for the spice bag)

First make the spice bag, by putting the cloves, coriander and ginger into a piece of cotton material and secure the top with string.
Chop the marrow, tomatoes, apples, onions and chillies into small chunks, and put in a very large pan with the spice bag, sultanas, vinegar and sugar.

Boil rapidly to dissolve the sugar, then simmer for approximately 3hrs until the vinegar is absorbed, the vegetables are tender and it resembles chutney !
Discard the spice bag and pot the chutney into sterilised jars.  Leave to mature for 2-3 months before eating – should be ready just in time for Christmas. 🙂