Date and cardamom chutney

We had a few apples left over from autumn, so I decided to make a chutney. I've been toying with the idea of using cardamoms for a while and I think it worked well. The apples were a mixture of cookers and eaters, so I guess you could use either. Here's the recipe:

1.7kg apples (cored and peeled weight)
0.5kg onions - chopped
600g sultanas
850ml malt vinegar
2 tsp salt
800g granulated sugar
500g dates (stoned and chopped)
2tbsp garam masala
20 green cardamoms (finely ground and the pods removed)
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 tsp hot pepper sauce (tabasco sauce would do)

• Chop and cook the apples in a little water until they're pulpy, then add the other ingredients.
• Cook for about 5 hours on a low heat stirring every once in a while to stop it burning to the bottom of pan.
• Once it looks like chutney, jar it. If it's taking too long, turn it off, and leave it overnight, then you can finish it off the following day - I often make chutneys over a few days as they need cooking for a long time. I managed to fill about 12 medium jam jars with this recipe.

Chutneys normally get better after about 4-6 weeks, as the vinegary taste subsides a bit.

On first tasting, I'm quite pleased by the results. The taste of cardamom is present but not overpowering. I could have ground the cardamom seeds finer, as the taste gets stronger in some mouthfuls - presumable as I chew on the larger lumps of cardamom seed. Personally, I quite like this, but it might not be to everyone's taste.

Enjoy!

Henry Moore reclining figure in snow

The kids have moved on from snowmen. I thought it best to capture this creative phase.

Here's the Moore original for comparison:

I think I preferred the dinosaur and men period of last winter. I'm looking forward to their surrealist offerings.

Famous Grouse

This race was the final Pennine championship counter of the year, so there were scores of Pennine runners. Mrs Noel's was due to do the race, but she felt a little ill on the day, so decided not to. It was lovely and sunny - as it always is on this side of the Peak District. Unfortunately, my camera didn't deal too well with the conditions, so everyone looks like they're glowing.

Dunnerdale Fell Race

Dunnerdale Fell Race was a Pennine club championship race again this year. This race is during my off-season, so it was great chance to watch the race, heckle, and video it. Can you spot yourself?

Shepherd's skyline video

Here's a video of yesterday's Shepherd Skyline fell race. Enjoy.

Screes and Great Whernside

"We should probably check if there are any fell races near where we are going on holiday," said Mrs Noel on the Friday before we were due to go to Nether Wasdale for a week. After a quick inspection of the race calendar, we found there was a race starting from the pub just around the corner from where we were staying on the day we arrived. Very bizarre!

Mrs Noel managed to finish first lady and win a meal for two at the pub - which was very pleasant. Thanks to the management of the Screes Inn.

Then on the way back from our week in the Lakes, we also called in on the lovely Kettlewell to do the Great Whernside fell race. This was the Yorkshire championship race, so a lot of good fell runners had turned up. Here they are not far into the race.

It was a good race to watch. Ian Holmes was chasing Carl Bell down the final descent. He was slowly, slowly gaining with every step. Unfortunately, they went out of my sight before the end. Apparently, Ian Holmes slipped and fell in the last hundred metres, otherwise it would have been very close. I had a quick chat with Carl while he was warming down and he sounded pretty relieved to have won.

Mrs Noel finished 5th, but was pleased to be ahead of some quality runners in a pretty high-profile race like this.

Last race of 2011

It was a great way to end 2011. The British fell relays will be my last race of the year, and I loved every minute of it.

If you discount all those fell runners who ran in other legs of the relays, and those who weren't there, and those who are better than me but couldn't get into their teams... bear with me here... then I'm the 22nd fastest fell runner in Britain.

Although in my rationale mind, I realise that this is like scoring a goal in a game of park football and imagining I'm Lionel Messi. I'm fairly sure I'm not in the top 500 fell runners in the country. But partly because of that "boyhood dream comes true" part of the mind that everyone keeps well hidden, it was great to be in an event like this and feel justified in pushing myself really hard like I assume the top runners do.

My teammates were great and dragged the team up to 21st place overall. We also had a ladies, v40 and v50 team out, who also did very well. I enjoyed having done the first leg and then being able to watch the drama unfold. My only regret was that in the mens' open race, there was very little "drama" around who would win. Dark Peak won it by a street in very unexciting fashion.

Will I be good enough to get into our team next year? My goal is to be better and be part of better team. Who knows what we could achieve. I shouldn't limit my ambitions. Where would today's champions be if they didn't have the drive and ambition to take them to the pinnacle of the sport. I'm hoping for 18th next year.