Sweet and Sour Oven Roasted Apple, Fennel and Sour Cherry Chutney ... From Smoky Mess to Foodie Success: Unveiling the Tale of My First Pizza Oven Adventure!

This week in the Garrett household has been a whirlwind of excitement. After two decades of dreaming, heavy hints to the husband,  laced with lots of build your own videos wafted hopefully under his nose, I can finally say, I’ve got one! That’s right, we have a brand-new pizza oven, and the excitement in the air is electric.

The Surprise Gift

Picture this: I’m lounging in the living room, one eye glued to the TV and the other on my phone, when my husband walks in to show me a pizza oven, which was actually reasonably priced for a change ... "I reckon we ought to get one of those" he said ... Now my husband is a thinker ... Left too long he will start to procrastinate and change his mind ... so now was definitely not the time to dither and that pizza oven was in the basket and winging it's way to us faster than he could say "What's for dinner?"!!

Entering the Smoky Zone

Now ... what I have discovered this weekend, is that I will never make a successful pyromaniac ... But wow can I create the perfect smoky scene ... At one point the garden looked like a scene from Wuthering Heights, all rolling fog ... but rather than looking like some heroine from a classic novel, I was a dishevelled mess of bleary runny eyes and my make up had turned Alice Cooper on me!

A Battle of the Flames

There I was, surrounded by swirling smoke and the soft crackle of burning logs. Was it the fire that defeated me or my wood-stacking skills? Who knows! Yet, I could have sworn I felt the spirits of past pizzerias rolling their eyes at my culinary antics. After much persistence, along with many muttered expletives, the fire was finally roaring, and the smoke began to settle and once I had tamed the fire, I did a surprisingly good job of roasting a pork belly joint with garlicky rosemary potatoes, which I served with my all time favourite sweet and sour oven roasted apple, fennel and sour cherry chutney.

The sweetness of the apples combined with the tartness from the sour cherries created a flavour explosion. The chutney not only elevated my humble roast but also tied the dish together, resulting in a well-balanced plate.

The Final Reveal

After several hours of chaos and the occasional smoky mishap, dinner was finally served! The dishes looked inviting, and the aroma wafting through the kitchen was enough to make anyone's mouth water.

Despite the journey having its bumps, the satisfaction of that perfectly roasted pork belly accompanied by the flavour-packed chutney made it all worthwhile.

The Recipe - Sweet and Sour Oven Roasted Apple, Fennel and Sour Cherry Chutney.

Ingredients:

Couple of handles of frozen morello cherries

500g Cox’s apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

1 fennel bulb, finely sliced widthways

1 small red onion, halved and sliced lengthways through the root

50g root ginger, peeled and finely grated

1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced finely into rings

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 star anise

125g demerara sugar

200ml cider vinegar

35g dried sour cherries

Method:

To oven roast this recipe:

Preheat the oven to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5. Put all the chutney ingredients in a roasting tin, mix together and cover with kitchen foil. Bake for 1 hour, stirring the mixture once or twice. Remove the foil and continue to bake for another 20-30 minutes, stirring halfway through. The chutney should be glossy, slightly caramelised and with a nice syrupy consistency. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.