Sunday, January 16, 2011

Gourmet Tomato Chutney

If anyone out there has too many home-grown tomatoes and wants to use them up, give this a go.  It is what I call wake up food, food that wakes you up and smacks you in the face.

It's fresh and zingy on the palate, sweet-sour, spicy, and hot if you like to put extra chilli.

1 kg tomatoes (I used nice little green tomatoes, worked ok)
1 small fresh chilli (or tsp of dried chilli flake)
1 chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
5 cm piece of ginger, sliced
4 tablespoons of sultanas
350g sugar (you can vary this according to the sweetness required)
1 tbsp salt (use sea salt crystals if you have them)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp allspice
340ml apple cider vinegar (adjust down if tomatoes are green and acidic)

Method
1. Peel tomatoes by immersing in boiling water for a minute.
2. chop into quarters and put into a heavy pan
3. Add chilli, onion, garlic and ginger
4. Heat and stir until juices run
5. Add remainder of ingredients
6. Bring to the boil and stir occasionally while it thickens and reaches jam consistency

To bottle:
1. Clean and wash several glass jars with metal lids.
2.  Place the jars on a tray into a low 100deg C oven, and leave while you make the chutney.
3. Once the chutney is made, carefully spoon into the jars from the oven, and seal straightaway with the metal lids.  Don't leave any air gap, fill the jars as full as you can.
4. Be careful handling the hot jars, lids and hot mixture.  Use clean tea towels and definitely banish the kids from the kitchen!
5.  The lids will pop and create a good seal as the mixture cools.
6.  Allow to cool, and store in the cupboard away from the heat and light. Gets better after a month, best after 3 months.

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