December 2, 2012

PART I: CHUTNEY

For several weeks now I’ve been preparing for the big event tomorrow. Each year we invite our friends to celebrate the holidays the last Saturday before Christmas. I’ll need to post some of the pictures of my prep work later, but as I am in the midst of trying to get all the food sorted, it will have to wait.

Right now I’m going to attempt some cranberry chutney. I found this recipe for Apple and Cranberry Chutney and really hope it’s going to work. I don’t know why but I really don’t like oranges except by themselves, and many recipes for cranberry chutney seem to include oranges. Bleh.

Update:I halved the recipe except for the cranberries. I tasted the nearly finished batch and found it too sweet for my liking. Perhaps it’s because I used Gala and Granny Smith apples. However, after adding more cranberries (500g total) I was happier.

Here’s the recipe I used:

• 500g cooking apples, peeled and chopped into small chunks
• 250g eating apples, peeled and chopped into large chunks
• 225g onions, chopped into small pieces
• 25g fresh root ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp peppercorns
• 250g granulated sugar
• 125ml cider vinegar
• 500g cranberries

Place all ingredients except cranberries in a large heavy-based saucepan, then gently heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 50 minutes, stirring regularly until the apples and onions are tender, the mixture has thickened and no watery juice remains.

Add the cranberries, then cook for a further 10 minutes or so until just softened but not burst.

Spoon the hot chutney into sterilized jars and seal. Store unopened in a cool, dark place. The chutney will keep for up to 6 months. Chill on opening.

PART II: BAGEL CHIPS

So about a week ago I made plain, simple bagel chips by cutting up some plain bagels and baking them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. I didn’t add any oil or flavouring. I ended up with these lovely chips, that my youngest devoured. Thankfully he missed seeing the big container of them so I still have some left for tomorrow.

I also wanted to make another flavoured set of bagel chips, but haven’t been able to until tonight. I found a recipe here that I wanted to try next. This time I doubled the recipe and omitted one ingredient since I didn’t have any onion powder in the house. However, I did have Montreal Chicken spice so I used that instead. I also used plain bagels that had sesame seeds on top.

Ingredients:

• 4 large bagels, any variety
• approximately 125mL butter, melted
• approximately 90mL olive oil
• 1/2 tsp Montreal Chicken spice or another seasoning mix
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice bagels into thin discs. In a small bowl or cup, melt butter with olive oil. Add butter and olive oil to a flat dish. Tip and rotate baking dish until entire bottom is coated with butter and oil. I used a medium sized glass dish and then just poured enough butter/oil mixture to cover the bottom. Once the bagel chips soaked it up, I added more mix to the dish.

Place bagel slices in the dish, press down, flip and repeat. Transfer soaked bagel slices to a baking sheet. Repeat process with all bagel slices.

In a small bowl, mix spices and sprinkle over bagel slices. OR, just sprinkle straight from your store-bought seasoning mix.

Bake for 5 minutes. Flip slices. Bake for an additional 5 minutes or until desired crispness is reached. (I did one batch with the flip and one batch without flipping. I couldn’t see any huge difference so I’d rather be a little lazy and just bake for 10 minutes on one side).