nigel slater's easy shallot chutney

one of the best things about the year coming to a close is nigel slater's bbc series on cooking. as is nigel's style, his cooking is always simple but this year it had a theme of 'marriage and relationships' between foods, flavours (sweet and sour, soft and crisp) and ideas (weird and wonderful). what i love about nigel is that his recipes are not just recipes. they are suppers put together with what is in the fridge and the pantry combined. this is a really cooking for the home-cook  because his ideas provide insight into making meals interesting. i know that i owe a lot of my creativity to the principles that i have picked up from his series and his wonderful book the 'kitchen diaries'.

unfortunately for me my kitchen is neither as large or as well-equipped as nigel's so more often than not i have to tamper with his recipe so that it fits not just pantry and fridge but the constraints of kitchen equipment and storage too. it may seem a bit insensible to make only a jar of chutney but you have to know the size of my fridge to understand why. i have unwillingly had to settle for a small fridge (the joys of renting), but that does not mean i cannot have home-made chutney. with that in mind i made nigel's easy chutney plumped with raisins and gently rough with mustard seeds. i recycled an old bonne maman jar to bottle the chutney so the recipe below should give you just that amount. 

this chutney has a gentle sweet-sourness so i would suggest pairing it with semi-soft milky cheeses. i had a delicious mid-week supper of firm ricotta cut into pound thick slices and lightly fried in olive-oil. o has had it on toast with a melting mild cheddar cheese. nigel eats his with salmon fillets which i am sure will taste just as good. 

as always, thanks nigel for a simple supper.

{nigel slater's easy shallot chutney}

four hundred grams shallots (it worked out to be roughly fifteen shallots)

a little bit of butter

one and a half tablespoons of olive oil

two cloves of garlic, sliced thin

one and a half tablespoons cider vinegar

one and a half tablespoons water

three tablespoons raisins 

two tablespoons soft brown sugar

half a teaspoon powdered all spice

one teaspoon black mustard seeds

sea salt

a roasting tin

pre-heat the oven to one hundred and eight degrees celsius.

i was quite intrigued by nigel's instructions to boil the shallots for ten to fifteen minutes to make it easier to peel them. i did go by his way and found that it is quite correct.

warm the olive oil and the butter in the roasting tin. then put all the ingredients into the tray and toss gently so that the shallots are coated with the vinegar, spices and oil.

roast the chutney for around forty to forty-five minutes until the shallots soften and become sticky and sweet and sour. i would recommend stirring them once of twice in between.