Showing posts with label Celebrate birth with food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebrate birth with food. Show all posts

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Birth Chutney

This is not its technical title; the one listed in The River Cottage Year is for 'Glutney', a word which instantly appeals and the recipe doesn't disappoint - bung in all the excess garden fruit and veg is the basic premise.

At eleven o'clock last night I ladled quantities of this year's brew into recycled and scrubbed jars ready to wait out the winter months in a store cupboard before consuming. The oversized marrows, endless small tomatoes, carpets of apples and the odd pumpkin have been beckoning for some time, but it was the birth of a nephew that prompted me to get out the chopping board and pan. A little over three years ago his older brother was born on the day that I happened to make a batch of chilli jam - the two were unwittingly linked - and a jar of the vintage chilli was recently discovered lurking with intent on the back of a shelf, (no comments about housekeeping, thanks!). When the newborn's eldest sibling, a sister, was born nearly six years ago her maternal grandparents and I descended within 24 hours bearing gifts of food of all temptation. A long way from home and on a fleeting visit, my first impulse had been to raid the deli counter of the local supermarket and, along with a bottle of the fizzy stuff, deliver it to the proud parents in celebration.

This is not a need I felt immediately after the birth of my own offspring - physical exhaustion is a pretty good preventive - and it has not been a pre-planned or even forethought option with assorted nieces and nephews over the years, rather a natural reaction and the connection only made this morning as I wrote labels over the breakfast cereal. Birth, a time to celebrate, to give thanks, and in this house it seems to be done with food!