Guest Post from onebitemore: Ruby Red Beet & 'Barb Chutney

So, I am most likely flying home to Sydney now. I am probably asleep - I hope I haven't developed a snoring habit and I really hope my mouth isn't hanging open. My bag is hopefully full of awesome shoes, bags, and tasty USA treats, and I hope my camera is full of photos for me to share with you once I have sorted myself out when I get back. So while I (ever so genteely slumber on the plane) Shez is here to make my blog explode with colour and energy. I have been a big fan of this lady for some time now: her recipes, her pics, the way she writes - ah! I just love it all, head on over to onebitemore to see what I mean.

Can I also just say that someone should give this girl her own cooking show? 

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Well hey there! My name’s Shez from onebitemore and I’m just gonna go ahead and stick my head (and my photos and usual ramblings) right here in this lovely blog whilst your usual lovely host Anna is away living the high life in the US of A.
(Don’t worry, I came invited. My hacking skills aren’t that good.)
Also, I hope you like chutney.

You see, I once had a girlfriend who didn’t. Her family, on the other hand, was condiment crazy (and I’m talking cray-zee) and this led to a somewhat tricky pantry predicament.
It was pretty much my favourite pantry in the world – full of just about every sauce, mustard, pickle, chutney, ketchup, chilli, mayo, oil and relish imaginable. (Though, to be honest, the mustards and mayos were mostly kept in the fridge).

So whilst her steak stayed unadorned and her sandwiches sat with none but the bare minimum of bread, butter & filling, her family loaded theirs up with whatever they could lay hands on. Dollops of just about anything that might possibly go with a meal would sit on the rim of each plate, with deft dabs and swipes being taken alongside each mouthful.
Mealtime discussion would be peppered with interjections of “ooh! The dijon’s my favourite so far” and “but you haven’t tried the tomato & rosella chutney have you? Gotta give that one a go.”
And she would sit, dollop-less and without recommendation.

My girlfriend is getting married soon (less than a month to go! Yahoo!) to an equally condiment-less bloke. A boy known for the predictability of his school lunches. One who might (just maybe) add seeded mustard to his steak, and only if prodded.
Their pantry is going to be pristine.

I received an invite to the kitchen-tea of my soon-to-be-wed girlfriend the other week as I was (somewhat serendipitously) knocking this chutney together. For a moment, I thought I might give her a jar – so she wouldn’t miss the condiment shelf at her family home so much when she moved out.
But then, after taking a bite of it, dolloped atop a cloud of home-made labneh and a buttery biscuit, decided that it would do much better in my pantry than hers. If it lasted that long, that is.

Ruby Red Beet & 'Barb Chutney
Makes approximately 2 ½ cups of chutney
This chutney gets its lush colouring from the combination of purple beetroot and crisp red rhubarb. There’s not that much sugar in it (compared to most chutney and jam recipes) so you’ll have to store it in the fridge after opening to make sure it doesn’t go off.
Ingredients:
300g rhubarb stalks
100g beetroot (raw, not tinned)
1 brown onion
½ C dried cherries
1½ C brown sugar
250ml malt vinegar
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp mustard seeds
zest of 2 oranges
Method:
1. Wash the rhubarb stalks and cut them into pieces no longer than 2cm each. Wash and peel the beetroot and grate it coarsely (I used the grating element of my food processor for this). Peel and slice the onion into half rings.
2. Tip all of the ingredients into a saucepan and give them a good stir so that everything starts to melt together. Turn the heat up to high and stir as the mixture comes almost to the boil and starts bubbling furiously.
3. Turn the heat back down to low and leave it, stirring from time to time to make sure the sugars don’t catch on the bottom. You’ll need to cook it for about 15-20 minutes before it’s done. You’ll be able to tell it’s done because the liquid will become sticky and syrupy and the rhubarb will have cooked down so that it’s squishable.
4. Tip the chutney into a sterilised jar and seal. Or, alternatively, spoon it straight onto a pile of labneh (yoghurt cheese) and eat with crackers.