Easy Tomato Chutney

My mother was the jam maker and my father  preserved hundreds of jars of fruit,every summer. We ate one huge jar of peaches or pears every day at breakfast –  if  the season had been good. So it was kind of rare for one of my parents to make a chutney or relish. My great Aunts were the real chutney makers.  It is a summer smell.  A summer taste, along side all those other summer tastes.  Chutney should be chunky with that whole sweet and sour thing going. It complements cold meats and is perfect with cheese. 

But on the rare occasions that my mother did make a chutney it lasted about a week. So good. Today I thought I would be clever and make this batch with the yellow tomatoes. There are so many.  I imagined I would get a creamy golden product.  Instead I got a brown kind of snotty product. But it tastes perfect.  The next batch I will make with the red tomatoes as it is really such a simple recipe. And the deep rich burgundy colour is a little more appetising!

This is an old early 70’s  recipe  and it really does reflect the period i think. All that sugar and cayenne!

My darling friend in NZ makes this every summer as well.   She just makes it in tiny batches, whenever she gets a few extra tomatoes out of the garden.   She is a very laid back cook. She just wanders about the kitchen as she drinks her coffee in the morning,  throwing bits and pieces into the pot.  Later in the day she pops it into any jars or containers she can find and seals it up.    All very matter of fact.  No fuss. We are sisters from different mothers. She is the sister who does not fuss.  I said to her years ago that I had lost my Mothers recipe and she pulled out hers and it was the same one from the same book.  An old  NZ Womens Weekly recipe book if I remember rightly.

Tomato Chutney

4lb ripe chopped tomatoes (about 16 big ones)

1lb peeled and chopped apples (about 4 or 5)

1lb onions, sliced and diced (about 4 or 5)

2 cups each  of sultanas and raisins

1/4 tsp cayenne (or more if you want it hotter)

1tsp each dry mustard and ground allspice

1tblsp salt

3  heaped cups brown sugar

2 1/2 cups cider vinegar

Place all ingredients in the big heavy bottomed pot and stir, cook for 1 1/2 hours to two hours until thick.

Ladle hot chutney into hot jars, seal.  These keep quite well in a dark cool cupboard but to be on the safe side you may choose to  store them in the fridge.

Last night I roasted two chicken breasts, basting them with the last of the pickling brine and a little oil. After turning the chicken twice I slathered it with a little mountain of  fresh warm chutney, grilled, after 10 minutes or so I topped that with heaps of grated parmesan and grilled some more.  So good. And very pretty.  Actually I almost took a picture but hunger got to me first. So here is a picture of Queenie’s bottom instead!

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