Beetroot chutney recipe

I last made this is in August 2011, and we have one jar of that batch left, so when the FH and I were harvesting the beetroot last night, we thought we should make some more!  It is a really lovely, sweet and ever so slightly gingery recipe - I do urge you to have a go if you like beetroot and chutneys.

This recipe comes from an old copy of the Sainsbury's magazine, presumably from around August in 2011!

We put all these ingredients into my large stainless steel preserving pan:

900g raw, peeled and grated beetroot [wear rubber gloves or you will look like a mass murderer afterwards!]

3 medium to large red onions, peeled and chopped

700g Bramley apples, peeled, cored and chopped

500g seedless raisins {from my AF stash!}

1.1 litres malt vinegar - the recipe called for pickling vinegar, but malt is all I had.

900g granulated sugar

2tsp ground ginger

I washed and sterilised 9 jars [in the hot oven] in preparation.  The huge panful was put on the heat very gently to start with, and the whole lot mixed together.  Once the sugar had dissolved, I increased the heat a little, and it came to a rolling simmer, where I left it for about 90 minutes, until it looked glorious!  It is still very moist but all the onion and beetroot is cooked through and the flavours have come together beautifully, and you can smell the faint gingery aroma in the kitchen - I wish I could bottle it for you!

The FH gave up and went to bed at this point, so I was left to bottle it, at about midnight!

I always put the hot chutney into hot jars and seal it with screw on pop-top lids, so that as it cools, the lids contract and seal tight with a vacuum.  This morning, all the lids had gone down nicely!

There was a little left over, and no clean and sterilised jar for it, so it is in the fridge in a container and will be eaten this week - it is rather delicious even without having had time to mature.