A first time for homemade chutney

Clare O kindly shared some of the bounty from her veg garden and pressed a load of tomatoes on me - some ripe and some green.  My first intent was to make Lina's recipe for green tomatoes under olive oil - but then realised that half the toms were very ripe and had I put them under salt I'd be left with nothing after the liquid drained off. Hence Plan B - chutney.

I mixed the chopped tomatoes with some chopped apple and shallots plus some raisins and sultanas, added mixed spice and ginger and cooked it in a syrup of brown sugar dissolved in white vinegar. I think - as I was guessing at quantities by eye - I rather overdid the vinegar and sugar solution, so had to simmer if for 3 hours before I got to the required viscosity - you test a chutney not with a cold saucer - but by running the wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan - it needs to leave a clear trail so you can see the base of the pan without the mixture quickly collapsing in on it. This took a very long time! Rather appropriately for chutney,  I happened to pass the time by watching an Indian film  (highly recommended : Lagaan - all about a momentous cricket match in the days of the Raj I can testify to being a complete non-cricket fan but I  loved it!)

Anyway I digress - the chutney is now bottled up and I'll have to leave it for a couple of months before seeing if it tastes as good as it looks.

Oh and by the way the kitchen smelled WONDERFUL!

Loads of advice from our main site on preserving and making jams and pickles

Clare F