Roasted apple and fennel seed chutney

I keep thinking this year's harvest is over - I thought the quinces would be the last thing for sure. But then something else crops up. This time it's apples - a LUrC tree five minutes from my house! How could I resist? I spent a fun few hours with M on a busy street corner - our strategy was for one person to try and knock apples out of the tree with a pole while the other (usually M - he is good at catching, I am decidedly not) tried to catch them, all the while trying to avoid hitting people, bashing parked cars, or sending apples to become untimely apple-roadkill-sauce under passing wheels. We grabbed a surprising amount before I had to leave and it was getting dark; at which point M was still up the tree in gathering gloom, unable to resist reaching for the final few.

The other reason I was happy about that harvest was that I'd joined a skillshare group wherein some people wanted me to show them how to make jam. It was starting to seem like it wasn't going to happen, but this last-of-the-season bonus made it possible. So, on Sunday, three ladies came over and I took them through my jam making process using this recipe.

I wasn't really meaning to make any more preserves. But then started constructing an apple and fennel seed chutney in my mind. And, while thinking of it, came across this recipe, which featured an interesting new chutney-making technique (roasting in the oven rather than simmering on the hob - also here), and sounded exactly like what I wanted (and completely delicious).

(made 4 small jars)

90g dried sour cherries, soaked overnight in apple juice (used white grape juice, soaked ~3 hours)
1 kg Cox's apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (used Packard's Corner apples)
2 fennel bulbs, finely sliced across (a mandoline is very good for this) (used green tomatoes instead)
1 red onion, cut in half and sliced lengthways, from the root end to the top (used white onion as had no red)
100g fresh ginger, finely grated
1 red chilli, finely sliced into rings (used dried)
2 tsp fennel seeds (used 2 1/2 tsp)
2 tsp coriander seeds
3 star anise (used 2 1/2 tsp anise seeds instead as liked the taste more than star anise in this context)
250 g demerara sugar
400 ml cider vinegar

Put everything in a roasting dish, cover with foil and place in an oven preheated to 160C/320F. Cook for an hour and a half, stirring once or twice, then remove the foil and continue to cook for about an hour, until thick and browned and a good chutney consistency (cook for longer if necessary). Remove from the oven and spoon into sterilised jars while still hot. Seal immediately.


The roasting worked well although not sure if it is any different or better than doing it on the hob, and does make sterilising the jars a bit more faffy since the oven is occupied. It's a delicious chutney. The ginger is pretty strong, the fennel / anise is present, but the sour cherries are perhaps a little lost. Will taste again when it is mature - for now I am definitely happy with it. Would probably be even better with fennel - just used green toms as that's what I had, but they don't really add anything to the taste.