Green Tomato Chutney

I’ve never really had a green tomato chutney that wasn’t too sweet, so this year, with an abundance of green (cherry sized) tomatoes, I thought I’d make my own. I looked on the internet for a recipe – but each one was different. So different in fact, that I had to go back to basics first and for a base line I checked the Green Tomato Chutney listed in the ‘The Star, Ration-time Cookery Book, by Hilda M.K. Nield. (1^/-), then using that as a base-line along with the recipe found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/how_to_make_chutney_57366 I set about my task.

Finished product

1Kg of my Frozen Green Tomatoes
Accidently, I didn’t get them out until morning so by the time I needed them they were only half  defrosted and much easier to cut up into small pieces.

2 x medium sized onions –  These were just chopped. A bit bigger than I’d chop them for chilli, Bolognese etc.
1 x red Chilli – very finely chopped
1 large cooking apple
2 x t.sps of chopped dried chillies
1 x Red Pepper – chopped same size as onions (gives the finished product some colour)
1 x t’sp chopped garlic
1 x t’sp chopped fresh ginger
Seasonings (I used white pepper, ground cumin, black pepper)
1½ t’sp salt
500ml malt vinegar
60g Sultanas
60g Raisins
200g Light brown sugar

1. Peel, core, then roughly chop the apple. Roughly chop the onions and other vegetables in use.
2. Place the apple, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli flakes, mixed fruit and seasonings into a large, wide saucepan.
3. Stir in the vinegar, sugar and salt.
4. Stir the mixture over a medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
5. Meanwhile, chop the tomatoes and add them to the mixture as it comes to the boil.
6. Once everything is in the pan, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat slightly and simmer the chutney for around one hour, stirring every so often.
7. As it thickens, stir more frequently and watch that the sugar does not begin to stick to the bottom of the pan.
8. The chutney is done when you can scrape a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan and the chutney does not flow back into the gap (also see same tip on Delia link) – mine reached 100^oC.

I prepared the jars (all ex-jam or pickle etc.) by putting them through a dishwasher cycle, allowing them to dry (drying the lids carefully with kitchen roll) and then filling with the finished hot chutney. You’ll find LOTS of advice online about filling jars etc. I simply filled the jars, added a disk of greaseproof paper, added the lids and turned the jars over. Simple.  Let’s see how long it lasts.

Note: Green Tomato and Plum Chutney

I have since, made this again, substituting the apple with plums, reducing the tomatoes and doubling the garlic and ginger.

• 800g Green tomato
• 800g Plums

After coming out of the freezer, the plums were perfect to de-skin and de-pit after 2.5 hours. The tomoatoes were then ready after 3 hours. Other than that (and the double garlic and ginger) everything was the same.