We moved to the peoples republic earlier this year and one thing that cemented my love for the province was the quality of the food. Where a menu read ‘organic’ or ‘fresh’ you could bet your bottom dollar that it was. A neighbour generously picked up ‘the finest chutney’ she had ever had from Farmgate, a restaurant and country store out in Midleton. Their concept towards food “is based on Regional food, supporting in particular local producers. Cheeses are local; duck is free-range; lamb and beef are locally reared; fish is landed at Ballycotton Pier“.
Their chutney was devine. We had our Sunday dinner on in the oven but we devoured the chutney with some mature red cheese and crackers well before dinner was cooked. The chutney was well matured and you could taste how carefully cooked it was.
I became addicted to Chutney and it soon became an expensive habit.
At €5 a jar in our local supermarket, I began to research all the different styles of recipes online and gathered information from sites like allrecipes.com and from chef’s books such as Darina Allen on how to make it from scratch. You’ll be pleased to know, it was fun, easy to make and turned out great. Ingredients simply consist of vinegar (for preserving) tomatoes, apples, sultana’s, garlicand spices, et al.
One jar of chutney locally is €5, but the ingredients for everything came to just over €15 which makes 12 jars. That a whole lotta chutney! I am delighted with the result but sadly have only one jar left after friends and family after a few mouthfuls took the jars home with them to Leinster. Happily, an excuse to make some more!
