Green Tomato Chutney
Still busy preserving. As I said, my mum wasn't a big jam maker (she still doesn't like any cooking that involves faffing about) but she made this green tomato chutney recipe every year. There wasn't a big vegetable patch, at least when we got a bit older, but she did always grow tomatoes and in the UK there are always plenty of green ones at the end of the season. So the smell of this particular chutney is synonymous with home and the autumn for me and my brothers. I make lots of other preserves and they all smell delicious but this is the one that makes me feel happy.
We used to eat in in cheese sandwiches, with jacket potatoes to dip the crispy skins into and with cheese and crackers (cream crackers preferably. They were always part of Sunday night tea time along with Primula cheese in a tube which I, being more sophisticated than my younger brothers, would eat squirted along a stick of celery. And being sophisticated it obviously had to be the prawn version which was as close as I ever got to a prawn in 1970's rural Britain.)
I bought the onions I'd run out of and the tomatoes and cucumber are from our garden. The apples are from the tree of manky apples in our garden that are mealy and go brown immediately. Long term plan is to prune it back and graft varieties that actually taste nice onto the branches but in the meantime they go in recipes like this. And cider.
Green Tomato Chutney
3lb (1kg 350g) green tomatoes
2 small cucumbers
4 large apples
3 large onions
6oz (170g) sultanas
2 tbsp mustard powder
1 level tsp cayenne
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tbsp salt (I don't put that much in)
4 1/2 gill (640ml) vinegar (Granny would have used malt vinegar, cider vinegar would be good too and may mature quicker)
3/4 lb (340g) Demerara sugar (an unrefined sugar, not as dark as soft brown sugar- use a golden granulated-type sugar if you don't have it.)
Chop fruit and vegetables fairly small. I peel the apples but not the cucumbers. Put all the ingredients in a large (preserving) pan. Simmer very gently, uncovered, for several hours until thick and your wooden spoon just leaves a channel when you pull it through the mixture.
I pot into clean jars I've sterilised in the oven with reused lids I've poured boiling water over. If you'd like to water bath it use new seals and continue as you normally would.
It will taste fairly harsh at this point so leave for 6 weeks or so to mature and mellow.
Keeps for ages (I found some on a shelf that was 3 years old and it was fine but I usually try to finish the previous years' as the current years is ready to eat.)
 |
| Jarred and labelled by my daughters |
We used to eat in in cheese sandwiches, with jacket potatoes to dip the crispy skins into and with cheese and crackers (cream crackers preferably. They were always part of Sunday night tea time along with Primula cheese in a tube which I, being more sophisticated than my younger brothers, would eat squirted along a stick of celery. And being sophisticated it obviously had to be the prawn version which was as close as I ever got to a prawn in 1970's rural Britain.)
I bought the onions I'd run out of and the tomatoes and cucumber are from our garden. The apples are from the tree of manky apples in our garden that are mealy and go brown immediately. Long term plan is to prune it back and graft varieties that actually taste nice onto the branches but in the meantime they go in recipes like this. And cider.
 |
| Thanks to Mrs H Nelson from Pembrokeshire in Wales complete with my Granny's notes |
Green Tomato Chutney
3lb (1kg 350g) green tomatoes
2 small cucumbers
4 large apples
3 large onions
6oz (170g) sultanas
2 tbsp mustard powder
1 level tsp cayenne
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tbsp salt (I don't put that much in)
4 1/2 gill (640ml) vinegar (Granny would have used malt vinegar, cider vinegar would be good too and may mature quicker)
3/4 lb (340g) Demerara sugar (an unrefined sugar, not as dark as soft brown sugar- use a golden granulated-type sugar if you don't have it.)
Chop fruit and vegetables fairly small. I peel the apples but not the cucumbers. Put all the ingredients in a large (preserving) pan. Simmer very gently, uncovered, for several hours until thick and your wooden spoon just leaves a channel when you pull it through the mixture.
 |
| Almost ready... |
I pot into clean jars I've sterilised in the oven with reused lids I've poured boiling water over. If you'd like to water bath it use new seals and continue as you normally would.
It will taste fairly harsh at this point so leave for 6 weeks or so to mature and mellow.
Keeps for ages (I found some on a shelf that was 3 years old and it was fine but I usually try to finish the previous years' as the current years is ready to eat.)
 |
| Not sure where I'm going to put it now... |
Comments
Post a Comment