The Thrifty Cookbook: 476 Ways to Eat Well With Leftovers (17 page)

Really handy for sandwiches, pies, soups and stews; just a teaspoon will add a deeply rich flavour to anything it touches. It’s also great with a hard British cheese and it freezes well or keeps in the fridge for at least 2 weeks.

2 tablespoons olive oil

8-10 red or white onions, sliced as finely as possible

½ teaspoon dark muscovado sugar

1 tablespoon rich, syrupy balsamic vinegar (optional, but it adds sweetness and colour and helps the marmalade keep
)

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan, add the onions and fry over a high heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, so that they brown without burning. Turn the heat very low and add water just to cover. Bring to the boil and barely simmer for up to 1½ hours, until most of the water has evaporated and the onions are pulpy and soft. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Add the vinegar, if using, and simmer for 5-10 minutes. There should be almost no liquid left in the pan. Allow to cool, transfer to a warm sterilised jar (see
page 39
) and seal. Store in the fridge.

My gran made all sorts of chutneys but this is the one I love most. Rich with apples and spices, it clamours for cold meats or hard cheese.

2.3kg dessert apples, peeled, cored and diced

1.6kg soft dark brown sugar

850ml malt vinegar

900g onions, chopped

5 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

2½ teaspoons salt

2½ teaspoons ground ginger

1.2kg sultanas

½ teaspoon ground mixed spice

Put all the ingredients into a wide, heavy-based pan. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer gently for around
2½
hours, stirring occasionally. When you can draw a spoon through the mixture and it leaves a slight channel, the chutney is done. Fill warm sterilised jars (see
page 39
) with the hot chutney, seal and store for 6 months, if you have the patience.

Because she knows I’m going to swipe half of it when my own has run out, my mother makes pots and pots of this chutney every year from her own tomatoes. It’s perfect with baked potatoes, cold meat, sausages or barbecued chicken legs – or just with cheese on a thick slice of bread. Beware! Once you’ve tasted this chutney, you will wonder what you ever did without it.

1.8kg tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped

900g dessert apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

450g onions, chopped

110g sultanas

2 teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

5cm piece of fresh ginger, grated

3 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

720ml malt vinegar

560g muscovado sugar

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tablespoon stem ginger in syrup, chopped, plus a tablespoon of its sugary juice (optional
)

Put all the ingredients into a wide, heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for 2-2½ hours, stirring occasionally. When you can draw a spoon through the mixture and it leaves a slight channel, the chutney is done. Fill warm sterilised jars (see
page 39
) with the hot chutney, seal and keep for 6 months before use. Once you open the jars, store them in a cool place. Unopened chutney should keep for years.

Roasted peppers are particularly delicious in pork stews or in a warm salad of Puy lentils, walnuts and goat’s cheese with an oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. You’ll find them incredibly versatile, and the advantage is that even slightly wilting peppers can be roasted and stored. I’m not a fan of green peppers, finding orange, yellow and red ones much sweeter and infinitely more digestible. They will keep in the fridge for a month or so if you store them in sterilised jars (see
page 39
).

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Place the whole peppers on a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they are shrivelled and the skin cracks and blackens (even quicker, you can scorch them until black all over by putting them directly on to the gas burner on your hob). Put the roasted peppers straight into a plastic bag and tie the ends together – they will sweat as they cool, making peeling a doddle. When they are cool enough to handle, pull out the stalk and seeds, peel and rub off all the skin, then cut the flesh into strips. Place in a sterilised jar, cover with olive oil and seal.

I use the little cherry tomatoes that grow so easily in a growbag in the backyard and come all in a whoosh, leaving you casting around for new ideas on how to use them up. But any tomatoes will do. Like Bottled Roasted Peppers, they will keep in the fridge for a month or so if you store them in sterilised jars (see
page 39
).

Halve the tomatoes, arrange them on a baking tray and put into a very low oven – around 100°C, or the lowest possible gas mark – until they dry out, their flavour concentrating into little bursts of red sunshine. Don’t rush it – the slower the oven, the more the juices will concentrate rather than run. It will take a couple of hours, but check them every now and then after the first hour and leave well alone until they begin to shrivel. Allow to cool, then place in a sterilised jar, cover with olive oil and seal.

A single jar of chilli jam will last for ages in or out of the fridge. It is intense enough for a scant teaspoon to add zing to stir-fries, sandwiches, seafood or – if you are a chilli fanatic – just about anything. The heat of all those chillies is mollified by the sugar syrup. You don’t have to deseed the chillies but I think it works better if you do. Stored in a sterilised jar in the fridge, this will keep for several months.