My Apple Chutney

I was feeling rather creative over the weekend. Pork chops, sweet potatoes and veggie couscous salad were on our dinner menu. And I wanted to make a sauce for the pork chops. I had some apples that were starting to gather a bruise here and a bruise there so I decided that an apple compote or chutney, as I like to call it would do. It's fairly easy to make provided you have some black tea, apples, cinnamon and maple syrup.

Take two tea bags, black or any flavoured tea of your choice, and place them in a saucepan with about 1 and 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let the tea steep for a bit. In the meantime chopped two apples, green or red, leaving the skin on. I used granny smith apples for their tartness. I like things to have a bit of a bite! When the apples are chopped, place them into the saucepan. Add some cinnamon and maple syrup, flavour to your taste. And place the saucepan back on the stove and bring to a boil again. Let the apples boil in the tea, cinnamon and maple syrup mixture until the apples become soft but not to soft so that they are a mushy pulp. If you find that some pieces of apple are not easy to pierce just take a potato masher and do a rough mash just to sort out those bits. You don't want to mash up all the pieces of apples. You are not making apple sauce. You just want a nice chunky chutney that has a bit of sauce. Also if you find that the sauce is a bit runny, place about 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in a small bowl and mix it with some water and add it to the saucepan. Do that until you have it to the desired consistency. Serve over pork chops, chicken, bread pudding and ice cream. 

*Note - You may add some dried cranberries or raisins when adding the apples to the tea. You can try other dried or fresh fruits as well. Caramelized onions are are great too! I luv adding a dash of cardamom. There are many options and playing around with flavours is a must.