1 lb dried apricots
10 large garlic cloves - peeled & coarsely c, hopped
1 1x3 piece of fresh ginger - peeled, & coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper - (or more if desire, d)
3/4 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup currants
Directions
Put the apricots in a bowl. Pour 4 cups of hot water over them and
let them soak for an hour.
Put the garlic, and ginger into the container of an electric blender
or a food processor along with 1/4 cup of the vinegar. Blend until
smooth.
Empty the apricots and their soaking liquid into a heavy
stainless-steel or porcelain-lined pot. Add the garlic-ginger
mixture, the remaining vinegar, sugar, salt, and cayenne. Bring to a
boil. Simmer on a medium flame, stirring frequently, for 45 minutes.
Do not let the chutney catch at the bottom of the pot. Lower heat if
necessary. Add the raisins and currants and cook, stirring, another
half hour or until chutney takes on a thick, glazed look. (It will
thicken slightly as it cools.) Let the chutney cool and store,
refrigerated, in lidded glass or ceramic jars.
Servings: 4 cups
Apricot Chutney With Raisins & Currants Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Fruit
The History of Recipes
It is possible to track the history of meal recipes way back into distant history, in fact as far into history as the Egyptians, and maybe further still. In practice though, sadly, these ancient records were just basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for preparing food.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered, according to Professor Solomon Katz, are a few stone tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the preparation of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel `exhilarated, wonderful and blissful`. Later on, in The time of the romans around 25BC a roman called Apicius assembled a number of documents showing how to cook the recipes cooked by wealthy Romans. He tells us how the meals of wealthy Romans were divided into starters, main course and desserts, known in latin as `Gustatio, Primae Mensae and Secundae Mensae`. Aspicius describes how the cooks of Roman times made use of a good variety of herbs and spices, including a few that are still present in modern kitchens like basil, mint and asafoetida. Later on in the 1400s, knights returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods, spices and herbs from the holy lands, including parsley and basil. These new culinary innovations was responsible for a torrent in books on cooking, some of which are now in private collections. By the time we get to the 20th century, cookery publications were greatly in demand due to better eduction, more leisure time and being a little richer. The arrival of television brings us TV chefs and the spin-off recipe books. And that pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everybody to search through massive numbers of recipes such as those found on our web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Apricot Chutney With Raisins & Currants recipe.
