Ingredients
- 1 Kg green tomatoes 2.2 lbs or about 6 cups / skinning is optional
- 1 Kg red onions 2.2 lbs or about 6 cups
- 150 g raisins 5.2 oz or about 1 cup – you can use ordinary raisins or golden raisins
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 500 g brown sugar 2.5 cups – your choice of dark or light brown sugar
- 1 Litre malt vinegar 32 fl oz or about 4.25 cups – vinegar with 5% acetic acid concentration
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables. Chop the tomatoes, onions, and raisins roughly and mince the garlic.
- Place all ingredients into a stainless steel pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a vigorous simmer and leave uncovered. Depending on batch size and your appliance’s heat, it can take one to three hours. Keep an eye on it and stir regularly.
- The chutney is ready when it’s reduced down and appears thick and brown.
- Spoon the chutney into warm, sterilized jars and seal with lids. It’s common in the UK to reuse supermarket jars for homemade chutney and to simply finish with this step. If you do this, ensure that the lid of the jar doesn’t have any exposed metal since the vinegar in the recipe can react with it. The vinegar can corrode the metal turning it black and potentially affecting your chutney. It’s better to use preserving jars with non-metal lids. Either plastic-coated on the inside or two-piece Tattler lids. It’s also best practice to water-bath the jars after they’re filled*.
- Water-bath the jars to ensure that they’re fully sterilized. Fill a tall pan with water and place a rack at the bottom if you have one**. Bring to a boil, then lower your (still hot) jars in so that they’re not touching and that there’s at least an inch of water above. Bring back to a rolling boil and leave the jars in the boiling water for ten minutes. Lift them out vertically (not tilted) with a jar lifter and set them on the counter to cool. The lids will seal as the chutney cools. It may take twelve or more hours for the seal to take.
- Label the jars when cool and store them in a dark cupboard. Once opened, keep the jar in the refrigerator and try to use it within a year.
Recipe 2
Ingredients
2½ kggreen tomatoes
500gonion
1 rounded tbsp salt
500g sultanas
500gcooking apples
500glight muscovado sugar
1.14l jar spiced pickling vinegar
Method
Step 1 Slice the tomatoes (you can skin them if you want, but it’s not
necessary). Finely chop the onions. Layer both in a large bowl
with the salt. Leave overnight.
Step 2 The next day, chop the sultanas using a large, sharp knife, then
peel, core and chop the apples. Put the sugar and vinegar into a
large pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add
the sultanas and apples and simmer for 10 mins. Strain the
tomatoes and onions in a colander (but don’t rinse), then tip into
the pan and return to the boil.
Step 3 Simmer for about 1 hr, stirring occasionally until the mixture is
thick and pulpy. Transfer to warmed jars (see tips, below) and
cover with lids.
Tip
You can use old jam jars for chutney as long as the inside of the lids are plastic coated, otherwise the vinegar will corrode the metal. Alternatively, Kilner jars are perfect. To sterilise, wash the jars in very hot water and leave to drain. When they are dry, put them in the oven at 160C/140C fan/gas 4 for 10 mins before using.