A green glut: Green Tomato Chutney
"Much too much, much too green..." as The Specials never sang. This has been a bumper year for tomatoes for everyone I think. Well, nearly everyone, I'm sorry if you're not one who has been eating homegrown tomatoes until you're fit to burst. We have and there's been such a glut I've made lots of tomato sauce for the freezer (not to mention slow-roasted tomatoes, spicy tomato and red pepper sauce and tomato juice all stored away for winter months) and we're roasting up the last few yellow tomatoes tonight with a salted roast chicken and homegrown potatoes. Cannot wait!
Last night it was the turn of the unripened green tomatoes that had been grimly hanging on to sagging stalks in the hope that summer heat hadn't gone. It's gone all right! Brrr. But I had a plan for those unfinished tomatoes, green tomato chutney. Super. I based the recipe on a Gary Rhodes recipe in Lindsey Bareham's excellent book: The Big Red Book of Tomatoes. I bought my secondhand copy online. I played around with the spices and added some pear and apple to give the fruitiness I wanted, as you do.
This really is an easy recipe. I made it while making the evening meal of pasta with a sausage and tomato (yes, more of 'em!) sauce and then managed to watch a CSI episode with a dash to stir at the intervals. Lazy chutney making, my kinda thing.
The aroma was lovely, even if I say so myself, and the initial tastings fruity and spicy with a pleasant sharp undertone. I'm looking forward to seeing how it matures and deepens in flavour over the next few months.
Green Tomato Chutney
(based on a Gary Rhodes recipe)
1 kg green tomatoes, chopped into quarters or eights
480 ml malt vinegar / red wine vinegar
(I mainly used malt vinegar but I had red wine vinegar in the cupboard to finish so...)
4 large onions, finely chopped
600 g dried fruit
(mainly raisins, green raisins and sultanas but I also added cranberries because I had them!)
480 g demerara sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tsp ground allspice
3 cloves
1/2 dried Kashmiri chilli (no seeds)
20 g salt
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped
Sterilise some jars and keep them warm (you can do this in the dishwasher while you make the chutney!).
Place the tomatoes with the vinegar in a large saucepan or preserving pan over a low heat and simmer for 30 mins. Add the onions and dried fruit and cook for a further 30 mins.
Add the sugar, salt and spices and simmer for 50 mins (stirring occasionally) before adding the apple and pear and simmering a final 20 mins (still stirring occasionally).
Spoon into hot, sterile jars.