Yesterday I spent the afternoon canning with a friend. We made raspberry jam and an apple onion chutney. Both recipes were from Williams Sonoma’s The Art of Preserving cookbook. They were relatively easy to make, not all that time consuming (2.5 hours to do both recipes) and quite tasty. If you’re going to do both, definitely start with the Raspberry Jam Recipe as raspberries need to soak in sugar for about 2 hours.
Apple Onion Chutney
4 lbs of Apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 cups of raisins
2 yellow onions diced
2 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 tsp of ground cloves
3 tbsp of fresh Mint – chopped
1 tbsp of fresh chives – chopped
4 pieces of lemon zest about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch in width
1 cup of brown sugar
In a large pot, warm up the butter and olive oil, once heated add in the onions and cook for about 15 minutes. In the mean time, in another smaller pot put the lemon zest, raisins, cloves and brown sugar add 2.5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Once it is boiling pour the mixture into the pot with the onions and add the apples. Let simmer uncovered for about 25 minutes.
Ladle chutney into the jar to within 1/2 inch of the top. Using a clean, damp towel, wipe the rim clean. Using tongs, remove a lid from the water and place on the jar. Using tongs, remove a lid ring from the water and screw onto the jar until just tightened; do not overtighten. Process the jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Turn the jars upright and check for a good seal; the seal indicator should be depressed. If the seal is not good, invert those jars for 1 hour more and check again.