Preparation time: 5-10 min
Cooking time: 1 hr max
A thick, dark, sweet preserve perfect with goat or sheep cheeses, or serving with poultry or game.
Peel and finely chop the onions. Add to a hot pan with enough sugar to just coat the onion. Keep stirring and heating the onion until it starts to caramelise..
Add the finely chopped figs and dates (they can be processed to a pulp if you ant the chutney to cook more quickly). Stir vigorously over a medium heat until steaming and bubbling. Do not let the mixture stick to the pan.
Pour in enough malt vinegar to make the mixture smooth and about as thick as cake mix. Keep stirring over a medium heat. The chutney will thicken and dry out very quickly, so add a little extra vinegar as needed. If the mixture becomes too moist and liquidy, add a little more sugar or leave to cook without adding extra vinegar.
After about 15 minutes of stirring , adding vinegar and thickening, remove from the heat. At this point the mixture should be very thick. When scraping to the sides of the pan, the mixture should not flow back in.
Sterilise and heat your chutney jars, then fill with chutney and seal down. Keep in a cool, but not refridgerated, place for 4 weeks before eating.