I received this email from a reader on Friday, and it made me feel warm all over (and if you made some, you would be warm all over!);
Hi Gavin,
Though I would let you know I have always had a surplus of chilies from a 3 year old Chilli bush. I made your hot Chilli chutney today and found it great to make and the instructions were easy to follow. I have some residue oil on the top but I think I can find a few thing to do with it. Thanks for some very interesting reading and look forward to your blog and I have used some of your ideas. Keep on keeping on.
As always
Cheers
Denny
And here is a photo that Denny attached.
Fantastic work Denny! It is amazing what an hours work in the kitchen can produce with a bit of determination. I reckon that there is about a years supply of Hot Chilli Chutney for a family of four in those jars. For those who missed the recipe, it is posted here.
I love getting emails from readers who are motivated to try something different, just from reading my blog. It makes it so much more worthwhile.
If you have tried something that you wouldn’t have otherwise have given a go, and were motivated by something you read on “The Greening of Gavin”, drop me an email. I would love to do a big post about the many inspirational things people are doing on their journey towards a sustainable lifestyle.
I hope that doesn’t sound to big headed of me, I just want to share the readership’s love.
The chutney looks fabulous, complimented by the pretty fabric it’s been photographed on. My sister has just dropped around with a bag of figs. Aren’t I lucky! Looks like fig jam session coming up this afternoon and as the weather has cooled I’m more inclined to tackle this task. Would Denny mind sharing where the lovely jars have come from. Are they Fowlers jars?
Gavin thanks for sharing this.
Cheers
Anita
I would be keen to try this myself but chillies the next day are never kind to me. 🙂
I grew up with this chilli, Gavin – more oil than yours, but not twice as much. And we use the long red chillies from our garden, rather than jalepenos. It was Barbara’s chilli chutney to us.
All my siblings now use it frequently. Glad the recipe’s out in the world.
I can’t eat dairy, and I often use this instead of butter (chutney on toast, on corn, potatoes, etc)
Since I eat so much of this, I’ve done a fair bit of experimenting.
One thing that I like to do if I’m planning to give some chutney away is to make little spice parcels and put them in the oil at the top of the chutney.
I use bird’s eye chillies for the chutney, so I cut off the top of some, take out the seeds (just throw them in the chutney) and stuff the little chillies with whole spices (cumin seeds, caraway seeds, peppercorns, juniper berries, cloves, whatever I have that seems to go well). Then I close up the open end of the chilli by pinching it together and piercing with a clove. They look kind of sweet and crafty (I am NOT a neat cooker, so my gifts rarely look Martha Stewart-ish), like a red fang with a clove button). If you have oil at the top of your jar, you can see the chilli through it (though I put them in with thicker chutney too).
The chilli holds the spices together so they can all be removed at once for people who don’t like heavily spiced food or chewing whole spices. Until the jar is opened, the spices just add a little bit of depth to the flavour of the chutney.
Sorry for the anon account – I’m the same person who grew up with “Barbara’s chilli chutney”.