Apple Chutney

This weekend, I am making chutney, which is one of those things I picked up on our travels in England. It is essential for Ploughman´s Lunch, and for me, works so much better with cheese than sweet jams. A few weeks ago, I tried this recipe for "Spicy-Sweet Tomato Jam" (I absolutely recommend that blog, by the way), which is basically also a chutney, at least within our frame of reference. We have re-christened it "the American Tomato Chutney" and I am being softly nudged to make more. But today, I am doing my standard recipe for apple chutney.

Not that there really is such a thing as standard with me, I tend to bend the rules a bit most of the time - at least in the kitchen. The recipe goes like this (it´s an English recipe, so I stay with English measurements, if you can bare it):

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
½ cup of chopped onion
1/4 cup of vinegar (malt is what I use, to avoid sulphite)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon orange grind
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
½ teaspoon allspice

This is what I ended up putting in my pan:

3 Granny Smith apples (they seemed a bit on the small side, and they always arrive to the store all banged up from the long journey from wherever they grow, which means you need to cut a lot out)
1 cup of chopped onion
a bit more than 1/4 cup of vinegar
1/4 cup of brown sugar and an added tablespoon of white
1 red pepper
about 15 leaves of basil, chopped
1 teaspoon allspice
a squirt of lemon juice
(I considered cardamom, but decided not to)

Bring to boil, let it simmer for 50 minutes, a bit longer without the lid if it is too watery, and then jar it and cool. It keeps for 2-3 weeks in the fridge. It rarely lasts longer than a week and a half. I have it with almost everything, on pretty much any sandwich.

In Sweden, the traditional sweet accompaniment to a meat dish would be lingonberry jam or rowanberry jelly. I personally like both on my pancakes, but with meatballs or meat stew? Not so much. On the other hand, I put syrup on my palt (which is a meatfilled dumpling and a post for another day) so it´s not about the sweetness. I like chutney because it is fresh-tasting and seems more related to sallad, perhaps.

The Quick Cooking Plan

This year I have a lot to do. Much to read, much to learn, many hours of practice to work through. And I need to eat well, while spending a minmum of hours on cooking. Absolutely no more than half an hour, preferably less. Fifteen minutes sounds ideal, but probably utopian.

Simple, tasty, good for you.

My first idea is to have a weekly structure, to make sure we get to have a balanced diet. In Sweden we already have some days that are culturally dedicated to a particular dish or type of dish. For example, Thursdays are peasoup & pancake days. This tradition goes back as far as the Middle Ages, when Sweden was still a Catholic country (King Gustav Vasa made us Protestant in the 16th Century). As a preparation for the Friday fast, people ate heavily on Thursdays and peas are a good match with pork (a favourite that dates back to Iron Age and the Vikings), and pancakes on top of that makes a very rich meal indeed. The Swedish Army still serves peasoup & pancakes every Thursday in their canteens, as do many lunch restaurants. Students also favour this tradition, not least because they enjoy the traditional drink: punch, which is a arak flavoured liqueuer, a speciality for Sweden. Tuesdays are fish days. I have heard that this is because fishermen wouldn´t go out on Sundays (for religious reasons), so Sundays and Mondays the fish market would be closed.

I decided to plan for three weeks at a time, this gives me the right amount of variation I feel that we need. Saturdays are for batch-cooking and inspirational cooking. Sundays are for shopping for and cooking with the mum-in-law. Some dishes can be made in large quantities (like 20 portions) with very little effort, though they take a whole afternoon to make, like peasoup. This is a dish that actually gets better after freezing. Same thing with meat stew or rice porridge. You just have to be there, but can do other things while it cooks. Chutney or jam is the same, and baking too. This is basic stuff, but saves a lot of time later in the week if done in advance. Salads are problematic in winter, hard to transport in below zero (particularly if you don´t have a car), and hard to store. I am planning to use more root vegetables and other sturdier greens.

I have already run this for three weeks and it works really well. I also have a much better idea of where the money goes, and what we need to get. The husband is supportive and I think the overall success is due to me having such a clear goal, an expressed need, compared to other times when I tried to organize our eating. Not only that, we have eaten some very good food lately. I guess I´m just the kind of person who is more inspired within a structure than one who likes to start from zero every day.

Afternoon Tea at the Savoy

The Savoy lobby.

It really was good news when the re-opened Savoy Hotel in Luleå announced that they would serve Afternoon Tea in their lobby bar. Both the husband and I are much fond of this type of meal and make sure to have it at least once when we go on our trips to England. Today, I decided to try it with a friend who is also a bit of an anglophile.

The lobby is rather nice, it is comfortable sitting and bright natural light conditions (which I am appreciating more and more the older my eyes get), and the service was very prompt and nice. We decided to be very un-kosher and have coffee. I had just woken up, hadn´t had anything to eat since dinner the night before, and was in grave need of a cup. My friend prefers coffee anyway, I think. So we got a large French press pot, with very nice coffee, I must say. In my experience, presso coffee tends to be a bit on the bitter side, so I ordered a side pot of hot water (the guy gave me odd looks, but complied), since I recently gave up putting milk in my coffee (I find this triggers my sweet tooth, and I have put myself on a sugar fast after eating myself into a Scarborough fudge coma this summer) and now prefers it a bit weaker than the tar-like brew I used to make. So, with a bit of added water, the coffee tasted great. My friend did not complain either.

I was a bit disappointed in the sandwiches. They were not sandwiches at all, as a matter of fact; what we got was sliced bread (German type rye bread, probably sour dough, not bad at all) and three kinds of cheese: Brie, Västerbotten (a hard, matured Swedish cheese), and a very mild green mould cheese. (I have tried to find if there is an English word for mould cheese, but my dictionary is failing me and "bluecheese" is all I can find. Seems not right for green mould cheese.)

There were also two kinds of butter, none of them regular, and a fig marmelade. On the top plate were sponge muffins and chocolate tarts. We got a side plate, a small fork, and a butter knife each.

I wish they had either provided sharper knives (like proper cheese knives) for each of us, or one to share, in addition to the butter knives. It took some work to get through the Västerbotten cheese in particular, as it is quite hard. Or even better, they might have sliced the cheese in four slices each, that would have been grand. I did think of telling them, but forgot when we left.

However, it tasted deliciously. Fig marmelade is a favourite, and it suited all the cheeses very well. Having been on a sugar fast for weeks, I found the muffin too sweet and decided to skip the chocolate (! I know). Clearly, I am not a reliable reviewer of pastry at the moment.

When I told the husband about it he said "what! no ham? no salmon? only cheese?". I don´t think he will be eager to try it anytime soon. I may, however, go back for seconds. But I will ask them to slice the cheese for us next time.

I am not against taking a traditional concept and making something new, something a bit fusion, as this is. On the contrary, I think being open to influences is a good thing and everything can be improved upon. But perhaps they should advertise it a bit better. I imagine a lot of Afternoon Tea fans are eager to try this, and it is simply nothing like what you will get at an English hotel.

The photos are dreadful, I know, but my phone was the only camera I had on hand.