The story how I made strawberry chutney is quite funny. Not actually the story about making it but what happened afterwards. It all started a year ago when my boyfriend and I collected about 5 kg of strawberries. The thing was that neither my boyfriend nor I like strawberry jam, so we both thought it’s a good idea to make strawberry chutney. And that I did. I cut 1 kg of strawberries for this and when I finished cooking it, I tasted it. And it tasted horrible. Yes, really. You could even say disgusting. So I was bumped (of course). Even more when I let my boyfriend try it and he almost spit it out. That was a little harsh! I have feelings too, you know. And I just spent an hour in the kitchen (plus monitoring time while it cooked for 3 hours). I was so disappointed. But. Because I just invested 1 kg of strawberries, I just couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. So I put it in our pantry (it’s a storage room but pantry sounds much nicer and more appropriate to store the worst nightmare of a chutney). And then I forgot about it. Well, that’s not exactly true. I did see the jars occasionally but I quickly looked the other way not to get reminded of my big failure. Then – after 1 year – I thought it was time to be brave and throw it out. I opened one jar and thought I try it one last time before trashing it and I tasted – and it tasted like heaven! Yes, really. It was soooo good!

strawberry-chutney-cheese-sandwich

Promise me you’ll make it as well. I want you to have a taste and be as surprised and delighted as I was.

All you need is:
– 1 kg strawberries
– 230 g sugar
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 2 onions
– 1 small chili
– a piece of ginger (about the size of a thumb)
– 200 ml vinegar
– some pepper

Wash the strawberries and cut them into pieces. Put them into a pot with the sugar and salt and let it marinate for about 30 mins. Cut the onions, chili and ginger into small pieces and add them to the strawberries. Bring the pot to the boil and add the vinegar. Let it cook for about 2-3 hours until the mixture thickens and gets a dark red color. Season with the pepper. Wash jars with boiling hot water and put the hot chutney into the jars. Close the lid tightly and turn them upside down to cool. The heat of the chutney will tighten the metal lids around the glass and make it therefore vacuum-tight. Let the chutney rest for at least 4-6 weeks.

strawberry-ginger-chili-chutney strawberry-ginger-chili-chutney-recipe

I gave it my boyfriend to try it too and out of the 4 glasses I made there is only a little left. We ate it like crazy with everything the last weeks – our favorite use is cheese and strawberry chutney. Goat cheese to be exact. I could bath in it. So good.

strawberry-chutney-easy-recipe

Have you ever made something that turned out other than you expected?

strawberry-chutney-cheese-bread-recipe

If you wonder: I made chutney with another kilogram of strawberries this year. It’s just such a shame that we are about to run out of it pretty soon and I have to wait for so long for it to become this delicious again. Anticipation is the greatest joy, so they say. Right? Well I hope so!

Now. Carry on!