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You’ll have this easy chutney down P.A.T.

Recipe: P.A.T. Chutney combines plums (or pluots), apricots and tomatoes

Jars of chutney cooling on stove
The chutney can be processed, refrigerated or frozen.

Summer brings a mixed bag of fruit as plums, apricots and pluots pile up in my refrigerator drawer. Meanwhile, tomatoes are taking over the counter space.

This easy chutney makes use of them all in a sweet-savory combination. I call it P.A.T. – plum-apricot-tomato – but pluots (which are a cross of plums and apricots) work, too.

No peeling necessary. Roughly chop the fruit and let it cook down slowly. The longer it simmers, the thicker it becomes.

P.A.T. Chutney

Makes 6 cups or half-pint jars

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter or margarine

2 cups onions, finely chopped

1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

¼ cup red wine

¼ cup fig balsamic vinegar

½ cup sugar

4 pounds plums, pluots and/or apricots, pitted and roughly chopped

1 pound tomatoes, hulled and roughly chopped

1 cup raisins

1 teaspoon lemon black pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

Reddish chutney cooking
Simmer slowly, stirring often.


Instructions:

In a large, heavy pot, melt butter or margarine. Sauté chopped onions until soft.

Add broth, wine, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil.

Add fruit and tomatoes. Return to boil, then reduce to simmer and cover.

After tomatoes and fruit start to break down, remove cover and add raisins.

Simmer uncovered, stirring often, until chutney is desired thickness. For thick, jamlike consistency, simmer chutney at least 1 hour, stirring often to prevent scorching.

Add pepper, salt and paprika. Adjust seasoning.

Refrigerate or freeze in half-pint containers. This chutney will keep at least a month in a covered jar in the refrigerator.

Or process jars 10 minutes in a hot-water bath.

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Enjoy this spring weather – and get gardening!

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to maintain moisture. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

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