Image from recipe at The Spruce Eats website
In that the question what to do with citrus skins and excess lemons from a local tree that cannot be eaten in season and to reduce food waste is answered with a tasty, spicy option that goes great with ham sandwiches, salads, crackers & hard cheese, on top of curries and in general other food.
Generally long term chutney preserves are fruit or veges, vinegar, and sugar cooked down to a chunky reduction. Chutney is a popular condiment and a great way to use up or preserve excess fruit and veges. The key elements in any chutney is the vinegar, sugar, primary fruit or veges and spices, while salt is key for other preserving operations. Earlier in India chutneys were instead short term relishes that had little to no preserving elements so they often needed to be prepared and eaten rather quickly and did not store well. But in many ways Indian chutneys have shifted to include more preserving elements to allow production at a larger scale, shop sales and home storage. Whereas a good restaurant or home cook may make theirs fresh and either eat it all quickly or toss and make more.
I had found a recipe that suited the more safe spiced flavours I was looking for.
From the Spruce Eats recipe for a Spicy Lemon Chutney
Ingredients:
10 to 12 lemons (about 3 pounds or 1 1/3 kg), plus 2 or 3 more for juice (see below)
2 Tablespoons salt (kosher)
2 cups brown sugar
6 garlic cloves (minced) <-- Note this is removed in mine due to allergy
1/2 cup dried currants <--Removed due to digestive issues
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 to 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger (grated) <--Note this & below is amended to safe personal spice mix
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (crushed)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 half-pint (8-ounce) jars and lids
Collection of the spice mix at home pre ground cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, green and black cardamon, coriander, allspice, pepper and bay leaves however the ground versions are easier for my ability
Although I use no garlic due to an allergy. Also to aid in decongestants I increased the ginger ratio so it was more a lemon, fennel and ginger chutney. I love ginger and my gut seems to agree which is good. My gut and ME had already taken garlic from me... I love garlic, but it no longer loves me. In addition I adjusted the spice ratio with my own: cloves, nutmeg, allspice, coriander powder instead of seeds so it is easier to eat, garam masala, chopped red chilli and of course the ginger. Garam masala is its own spice mix of peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, mace or nutmeg, black and green cardamom pods, bay leaf, cumin, coriander but it is all pre ground which is good in case you were not planning or able to spice grind for a bit.
When ground the separate elements of garam masala can be indistinguishable so to better identify if there is a specific allergy or intolerance the unground ingredients can be tested in small amounts along with the ground product.
In case of unknown allergies or intolerances it is best to do an allergy skin test, then a reduced elimination type diet to test each of the spices in controlled forms to see if a reaction occurs or if your gut agrees with them (note: skin & allergy reactions are often fast while some dietary reactions can take a couple of days to develop). In many cases I was lucky compared to some with ME I just primarily lost alluims, (garlic, onions, leek, chives), gluten, a few other spices, some other vege & fruit types, (e.g. skin of fresh figs) and some types of legumes. I needed to avoid them due to IBS, new intolerances and new allergies.
There is always the chance I find more that I can no longer eat which is why hubby and I have tended to stick with what we know is safe, then safely look to try things that previously did not have an effect before ME but now need to be retested on an IBS, intolerant and allergy prone gut. Blergh that bit is annoying. Beforehand things were simpler and quicker. Not to mention I can no longer buy most prepared foods due to the gluten and alluim issues as onions or garlic are used in almost all sauces at restaurants or supermarket products and gluten is a significant core in many foods. Even gluten free crackers can have seasoning added as 'spices' and they become bullets to the gut, skin, and lungs. Hence we make our own chutneys and preserves, that way no hidden garlic or onion to surprise (because anaphylaxis is a dangerous but present risk).
On the note of finding the ratio of key elements for the chutney:
The Sugar and Vinegar Ratio to Lemons
The original recipe called for 2 cups sugar to 3 pounds lemons. At that point, already without a sweet tooth, I would be of the view 'Whoa, hold it there, are we making something closer to jam', However this would be a more spicy than sweet chutney and often any fruits have sugar as well. However since this is a chutney preserve for long term, not a puree, the sugar, salt and vinegar are critical.
But with 250g lemons how much sugar was used and how does that compare to the recipe?
I will check with some really rough calculations via the phone sans the spices.
3pounds is roughly 1.36kg
A cup of sugar would be approximate to 200g. Hence 1 kg would contain 5 cups, 1.36 kg would contain 6.8 cups
2 cups compared to 1.36kg is a ratio of 2:6.8cups, 0.294, or 22.7% of the total 1.76kg i.e. a little under a third of sugar compared to lemons, or about a fifth or forth of the total mixture.
I used 4 tablespoons of sugar, to accommodate any extra I would used 5 tablespoons in the calculation.
There are approximately 13g in my tablespoon so 5 of those would be 65g, compared to 250g of lemons that would be 65 : 250, 0.26, or 20.6% of the total. Which is at most still under the amount of the recipe. When I use closer to 4 tablespoons I would be especially under but if they were slightly heaped they would be closer to just under so a reasonable test with my low sugar tastes.
However in comparison Nigella's website lemon chutney recipe, had a higher sugar ratio with 3 1/4 cups sugar, 813mL or around 638g (using sugar ρ = 0.785) to 2 1/5 pounds lemons i.e. 1kg. Which equates to a ratio of 0.638 a little under two thirds sugar compared to the lemons, or around 39% of the total 1.64kg, around 2 fifths of the total mixture. Clearly I preferred the recipe with sugar on the low side, not needing the sweetness aspect, but for most British tastes there is a significant sweet tooth.
I did the same likewise comparing the ratios of vinegar to different recipes.
In many cases if the sugar was there only for tastes then the sweetness can be acquired through other means, e.g. the sugar in fruits (which can be extremely high in sugar content), sweetness in caramelised fried veges like onions, sweet substitutes like agave or stevia, other sugars like honey and maple syrup, etc. However when it comes to preserves elements like vinegar, sugar and salt are often core because of their chemical reactions including acting as preservatives & offering structural benefits, not their taste. Likewise salt is not used when curing meats and fish because people solely want to taste salt, (as the ratio of salt to meat is on the high side), it is done because it preserves the meat for longer (most the salt is brushed off anyway as it is there to draw out the moisture). But while some salt, sugar and vinegar is needed in long term preserves some with a sweet tooth can find themselves needing a tad more sugar or sweetness to make the recipe palatable. Thankfully I tend to just need a little to make the recipe a viable chutney preserve. Even for me getting to the same approximate amount of the recipe seems a bit sweet.
The fennel was the easy bit, I took off a couple of layers and finely chopped them with a mandolin and then diced. Like an onion, fennel forms white layers around a central core and the top grows shoots of green fennel fronds.
I had been pre preserving, storing the lemons with some sea salt in a sealy bag so they were somewhat pre salted. I juiced and de-seeded them, taking care to keep the juice ready for later in a separate bowl. I took any excess pith off as best I could, (thankfully the lemons had very little pith). I also added a lime I was preserving with the lemons. Then the skins get finely chopped and diced. In a photo below I have shown another bag that has just been packaged to store. I then finely grate the ginger and put it aside to add later.
I fry the fennel in a pot so it slightly caramelises. Then I added the lemon & lime skin and ginger into the pot and fry a bit. Then add the vinegar, spices, lemon & lime juice, sugar etc and cook down until the wet mixture thickens and making sure all the sugar has dissolved.
Finished :)
Now at this point I know the chutney may sound unusual to those who prefer to buy their chutneys in squeezy bottle sauce form from supermarkets, and sour & spicy tastes are treated like the ugly duckling in their diet. But I then do something that even those familiar with the spiced lemon chutney recipes may find unusual. I added some chopped walnut pieces for added texture. I know it is an odd experiment. I once thoroughly enjoyed a fig and walnut chutney so much I found that the added walnut to this lemon one would be quite nice, to my tastes.
Finished and confirmed tasty ready to try with dinner with a couple of the ingredients and a kitty shown alongside.
Key phrase 'to my tastes' and I know they are weird after this much time working around odd diet restrictions and illness. I fully expect anyone else to make their food to something more to normal expectations, especially to serve to others. In this case I know the only ones to eat this latest experimentation to be myself and perhaps hubby. It takes any pressure to met others tastes away and also to accommodate the learning process where faults do not get tossed out unless they are completely inedible like pyrolyzed rubber. Perhaps I will hit a recipe variation that would be more welcome on a shared afternoon platter but at least for this one we have the tasty chutney all to ourselves.
