Tomato Chutney

Our tomatoes have been hanging in the BBQ area for a while now, slowly ripening. This morning I had enough to make another pasta sauce. I’d forgotten just how soothing peeling tomatoes is, and then squashing the warm flesh between your fingers.

It’s reducing now and I thought that while it was reducing, I’d share my tomato chutney recipe.

Photos are from today’s pasta sauce, not from the chutney. I was juggling 2 small children, I didn’t have a chance to juggle a camera as well.

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First, it helps if you’ve got the kitchen to yourself.

Of course, if you’re me, you don’t.

I had Isaac standing on one side the the bench, threatening to throw himself at the floor (seriously kid, you’re 14 months, not old enough for this climbing nonsense!) and Amy, standing next to me, supposedly helping.

But we all know how helping goes when your child is 3 and a half.

So, clean the kitchen. That’s always a good start.

Take your green and yellow tomatoes and chop them roughly. Add some crushed ripe tomatoes for liquid so that the bottom of your pan doesn’t burn while you’re cooking the green tomatoes.

To the tomatoes add sugar and salt, a couple of tablespoons each. Also add garlic, lots of it – I used probably 15 cloves (what? I like garlic)- and 4-5 medium onions, but if you’re using less tomatoes, use less garlic and onion.

A splash of vinegar, white balsamic would be my preference, but Amy tipped it into a cup and tried to drink it a few weeks ago – much choking and coughing ensued and she is more respectful of the vinegar now – so I used white wine vinegar.

Turn on the heat and let it simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent catching and burning. Burning will fuck up an entire pot of chutney, so you know, don’t let that happen. When the tomatoes are all soft, take your Bamix and blitz everything into a pulp. Cook for another 20 minutes or so before checking the seasoning. Add salt or sugar as you think necessary, you will probably need rather a lot of sugar to counteract the green tomatoes acidity.

Let it cook for as long as possible to improve the flavours, also to let it reduce and thicken.

Once the consistency and taste are to your liking, bottle it into warm, sterilised jars, the ones with the pop top lids. Set aside to cool and seal, checking the pop tops. If any of the jars don’t reseal, you’ll have to pop them in the fridge and eat them first. I had 4 in this batch that didn’t, obviously the jars weren’t warm enough. I gave 2 to my SIL and we ate the other 2 jars quick smart.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes (I had about 4kg)
lots of garlic
4-5 medium onions
salt and sugar to taste
a dash of vinegar

By all means, if you have herbs growing and want to use them, add them. My herbs are all going to seed at the moment, so I’ve not been using anything much. And we’re not going to talk about my basil that the dog dug out. Twice.

Chop everything roughly, making sure that there is enough ripe squashed tomatoes in the bottom of the pot to prevent burning. Add salt and sugar, a dash of vinegar, lots of garlic and the onions. Let simmer until everything is soft, then blitz to a pulp. Continue to cook for about 20 minutes before checking the seasoning and adjusting with salt or sugar as needed.

When the taste and consistency are to your liking, bottle into warm sterilised jars and set aside to cool.