WELCOME TO OUR KITCHEN: We're making plum chutney!

Cooking with Bruce and Mark

Plum chutney! It's a favorite in our house. We hope we can make it a favorite in yours, too.

We're making it from scratch in this episode of our podcast. We've got a one-minute cooking tip. And we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week.

We're veteran cookbook authors Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of three dozen cookbooks (plus more to come!). We've been contributing editors at EATING WELL and COOKING LIGHT and had food columns in both magazines.

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:47] Our minute-cooking tip: an easy way to make great hot chocolate with store-bought plain truffles.

[02:24] We’re making plum chutney!

Here's the recipe:

Makes about 8 pints (can be halved). The jars, lids, sealing rings (if using), funnels, and ladles must be sterilized in a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes.

• 8 pounds or 3.65 kilograms of small red plums, preferably Santa Rosa plums, although any juicy, sweet, red plum will do
• 2 1/2 cups or 600 milliliters apple cider vinegar
• 2 1/2 cups or 540 grams demerara sugar
• 2 cups or 400 grams granulated white or caster sugar
• 9 medium garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• One small-hand-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and
• minced (about 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup or 60 grams finely chopped crystallized or candied ginger
• 2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup or 150 grams raisins

1. First, a trick. Pour 16 cups (8 pints or 4 quarts) or 4 1/2 liters of water into a large stock pot. This is how much chutney you’ll make. You need a pot about a third larger than this for boiling. And notice where the water is—you’ll need this mark for later.
2. Pour out the water. Mix the plums, vinegar, and both sugars in the pot.
3. Set the pot over medium-high heat and add the remaining ingredients. Stir constantly until the sugars dissolve. Bring to a boil, stirring often.
4. Reduce the heat to low and simmer slowly, stirring often, until thickened a bit, until the chutney in the pot comes to about that mark where the water was in the first step.
5. Ladle the chutney into eight clean 1-pint or 570-milliliter jars. Either seal, cool for no more than 1 hour, and store in the fridge for up to 1 month or in the freezer for up to 1 year; or seal the jars and water- or steam-can them for 10 minutes.

[16:48] What’s making us happy in food this week: Italian meringue on a cake and smoked beef chuck stew!