One of my all time favourite cookery books (especially in summer) is “The Herbal Pantry” by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead. It has beautiful photos with recipes in the following categories: vinegars and oils, butters and herbal blends, jams, jellies and syrups, pickles and other delights, chutneys, mustards and sauces and herbal libations. In the book the apricot lemon basil chutney is used to flavour a chicken curry.
Ingredients:
1 pound dried apricots
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup sliced blanched almonds
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped lemon basil (or regular or cinnamon basil, lemon balm or marjoram)
Preparation:
1. Crush coriander seeds 20s on speed 5 or mill them finely if you don’t want to bite on bits of coriander in the finished chutney.
2. Chop onions and garlic on speed 5/3 secs and push down the onion and garlic with the spatula afterwards.
3. Place all ingredients except the basil in the TMX bowl and bring up the temperature to 100C/speed 2/REVERSE (takes about 6.5 minutes). Reduce the temperature to 90C and cook on REVERSE/soft stir for 45 minutes or until mixture thickens.
4. You can decide at this point how chunky you want the chutney. Whizz at speed 5 for a few seconds until you like what you see.
5. Add the freshly chopped basil, stir to mix and then pour into sterilized jars or freezer containers and cover tightly. You can also process the jars in a hot-water bath for 15 minutes.
This tastes amazing with veggie burgers and on cheese. Next time I’m going to use coriander instead of basil.
Scribblings from a chaotic kitchen 