Green Tomato Chutney

I'm no domestic goddess but it certainly sounds like I am when I say I made my own Green Tomato Chutney from tomatoes grown in my garden. 

As I wrote earlier, (see here), My six tomato plants planted out in early June bore lots of fruit but lots of it was inedible. Either it sort of rotted on the way to turning red, or it didn't ripen from green at all. I picked what I could eat and waited until the end of the season when I felt it was too late any green tomatoes left on the plant to ripen. I can't say the effort, time and space I gave over to growing tomatoes was worth it for the few tomatoes I got. I owed it to myself to use up those green tomatoes and make that chutney.

The Bounty

I used a recipe from the the Internet which looked easy, cheap to make and according to the comments section was delicious. 

Ingredients

• 2.5kg green tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 0.5kg onions, finely sliced
• 4 tsp / 30g salt
• 1L malt vinegar
• 0.5kg soft light brown sugar
• 250g sultanas, roughly chopped
• 3 tsp / 20g ground pepper

Equipment

• Preserving pan or other large lidless pan (I used my biggest saucepan which I use when making stocks or soups or boiling ham.)
• 7 - 10 jars with lids
• Food wrap / cling film
• Sticky labels

Method

1. Chop the chopped tomatoes and onion and mix together in a non metallic bowl. Mix through the salt and leave overnight covered with cling film or a large plate.

   

   Shoulda chopped finer. Look at those chunky onions. Tut tut.

    The little tomatoes took ages to chop.  I was half tempted to take out the Magimix and use one of the slicing disks but I couldn't be assed taking the time to figure out which disk to use and wasn't sure the Magimix would slice the small tomatoes without me having to chop them in half anyway so I persevered. I think my chutney would have broken down better if I had chopped the tomatoes and onions finer so I would say chop it the finer the better.According to the recipe, salting the mix overnight draws out the water from the tomatoes which allows the chutney to cook faster. It also enhances the flavour. If you wish to skip waiting overnight then just add half the salt and continue with step 2. Personally, I was glad to have the excuse to break overnight after all that fiddly chopping.
2. Heat the vinegar and sugar in a large pan. 
3. Roughly chop the sultanas and add them to the vinegar and sugar. Continue to simmer. 
4. Drain the tomatoes and salt but do not rinse. Add to the pot and stir well. Add the white pepper. I used ground black pepper instead.

   

   Adding the tomatoes and onions

5. Boil the chutney for One and a half to two hours. Stir occasionally and make sure the mixture doesn't burn (as I nearly did!)

   

   D'uh! Chutney stuck to pan on the right hand side. Caught it just in time and transferred it to another pot. 

6. Dry and sterilise the jars by washing them in warm soapy water and placing them rim down in an oven preheated to 140 degrees Celcius for twenty minutes. 
7. The chutney will thicken and reduce by half. When you draw your wooden spoon against the bottom of the pot and a space clears for short time, the chutney is ready.
8. Fill the jars with chutney tapping each at the bottom when full to remove air. If your chutney has cooled, make sure your jars have cooled and vice versa.
9. Place a double layer of cling film over the top of each jar and trim. Put the lid for the jar on. 
   
10. Label the jars. The chutney should last for six months. Once opened I would refrigerate.
    

The chutney turned out well and was straight forward to make. We are already onto our second jar. It goes well on sandwiches and with cheese.