Green Tomato Chutney

NAME: _Green Tomato Chutney a la Ted

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INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

For every:

1 kg green (un-ripe) tomatoes 

Use:

2 - 3 onions ~~450 - 550 grams, diced a bit chunky

4 tsp salt un-iodised table salt

2.5 - 3 cups raw sugar

95 ml Ezi Sauce *see my recipe for clone Ezi Sauce here.

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon cornflour

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

Also needed:

Quantity of pickling jars with lids, washed and sterilised, enough for the quantity you intend to make. 

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METHOD:

Chop tomatoes to roughly 1cm - 2cm. Keep seeds and gel with them. 

Chop onions roughly around 1cm - 2cm. Add to the tomatoes.

Use a bowl big enough to hold those quantities of ingredients, add the required amount of salt, stir through, then cover and leave in a cool place or the refrigerator for 12hrs at least. 

Put the tomato/onion mix into a pot, keeping all the liquid that the salt drew out as well, bring to the boil over low heat. 

Add relevant amounts of sugar and Ezi Sauce and stir together, then simmer it uncovered over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Make sure it doesn't catch and burn. 

Turn off heat, add remaining ingredients (curry and mustard powder, turmeric, cornflour) and stir then turn heat back on for ten minutes to simmer and combine. 

Put into the prepared sterile jars, put lids on, let cool. 

 

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SERVING:

Look up uses for chutney, hehehe. I cook with it sometimes, and we definitely have cheese/chutney and cold meat/chutney sandwiches regularly. 
 

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NOTES:

A weird and late start to my tomato plants gave us around five kilos of green tomatoes  towards the end of the season, and you can only eat so many fried green tomatoes . . . So I dug around in my recipes and found an old recipe I've used in the past (also works for apple cucumber chutney BTW, just adjust cooking times and cornflour a bit) and then realised it used Ezi Sauce so I hunted down a recipe online, tried it, realised it wasn't the way I remembered Ezi Sauce, and put that recipe on here as well.

Make sure your jars are well cleaned, sterilised, and boiled for this, get the chutney into them very hot and seal immediately, and they'll keep a few months in a cool place. (Ours won't last long enough to be a problem...) We had around 4kg of tomatoes and used 12 jars of 210ml size with a bit of chutney left over. 
 

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ENJOY!

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Home Made Pickling Vinegar (Ezi Sauce clone)

NAME: _Home Made Pickling Vinegar (Ezi Sauce clone)

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INGREDIENTS/UTENSILS:

15 grams whole cloves ---------------\

15 grams whole black peppercorns---- (See Note 1)

7 grams chilli flakes mild

30 grams ginger fresh, washed, scraped, and chopped (See Note4)

400- 500 ml double-strength white vinegar 8% acidity

1 tsp un iodised cooking salt 

1 litre double-strength white vinegar 8% acidity (See Note 3)

 

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METHOD:

Use a glass jar with tight-fitting lid that's 1.2 - 1.5 litres in size. Put in the vinegar, salt, and sugar/molasses if using, stir or shake until dissolved. Add in the other ingredients, put the lid on tightly and shake. Leave it to stand for at least 12hrs, 24hrs preferred, then strain through some fairly fine weave like calico or handkerchief cotton into a clean glass bottle. It'll keep for ages, months, if left unopened. (Note 5)

 

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SERVING:

It's not actually a serving idea per se, instead it's used in pickles and chutneys etc. I've also added a small splash to a salad vinegar/oil vinaigrette for interest. 
 

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NOTES:

Note 1: Purists will say "whole" black peppercorns and cloves, I say put them in a piece of parchment paper then into a teatowel and crack them with whatever you have. Don't pound them to dust, just break them open a bit. 
Note 2: Experiment - I've improved over the original recipe by adding 1 tsp of crumbled cinnamon bark as well. Also 1 tsp raw sugar or molasses (molasses preferred) adds "body" to the end product.   

Note 3: DON'T be tempted to use the normal white vinegar, pickling needs more acidity that only double-srength can provide. Usually only a half litre is used for the amount of ingredients but I've found that the flavour is overpowering at that strength so I opted to add half a litre more vinegar. Start with the 500ml, taste test after 12hrs, and if, like me, you found it unpleasantly strong, add 250ml - 500ml more double strength.

Note 4: I don't peel the ginger, rather wash and scrape lightly with a spoon, also thin slices with a mandoline are as good as chopping.

Note 5: The vinegar goes dark - it's meant to. Also - keeping it in a dark brown bottle will retain the colour, clear glass lets light in and that fades the colour after time. 

Also, you can find my recipe for Green Tomato Chutney here where I've already used the vinegar to make several batches.

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ENJOY!

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