The last word on parsnip chutney!

So this is positively the last word on curried  parsnip chutney! Due to a freezer malfunction we were left with three pounds of defrosting parsnips, beautifully home-grown by my beloved… and I remembered a recipe I had once made for curried parsnip chutney which was delicious… could I find the recipe  among my hundreds of cookery books? Could I heck!

I trawled the internet and at last came up with two recipes, the first included dates…

and spices, but no curry powder…

Here is the recipe again:

1 ¼ lbs cooked parsnips

1 lb peeled, cored, sliced, apples,

½ lb onions, chopped

½ lb tomatoes chopped

½ tsp dried ginger (I used more, the spice flavour seemed to cook away)

1 tsp mustard seeds

2 ¼ cups cider vinegar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup currants (I used dried sultanas which was all I had)

1/ cup dates

¼ cup candied ginger finely chopped (I love ginger so I put in much more!)

1 tsp salt

1 large pinch cayenne pepper (I added a lot more as I like things hot, hot, hot!)

Bring to the boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves without catching, then cook on a low heat, or in a slow oven, or in a slow cooker until it is thick and ready to bottle. I can’t give a precise time because our parsnips had been frozen and seemed to give out a lot of liquid. Bottle into sterilised jars, wait a month (if you can) and enjoy!

The second was for a curried banana and parsnip curry… what a lot of bananas 3lbs is!

I chopped the parsnips up into rather large chinks, thinking they would soften and mush a little… they didn’t… if I did this again I would cut the ‘snips into small cubes.

The colour was rather pale… maybe it will darken as it matures… I tasted it, and wow! Even without maturing it was really delicious!

Here is the recipe for this one:

1 lb. cooked parsnips, peeled, dice into small cubes

3 lb. firm bananas, not too ripe, sliced thinly

1 ½ pints white vinegar

1 lb white sugar (would brown sugar have given a better colour? I think it would!)

8 oz. currants or sultanas

1 rounded tbsp. curry powder (for my taste this was far too small, for the quantity of fruit and vegetables I think it would be too small for anyone; I added about eight (ok maybe ten) teaspoons of ready made curry powder)

1 level tbsp ground cinnamon (I don’t like cinnamon so I missed it out.)