I still have more tomatoes than I know what to do with. So I picked another kilo to make chutney with. That's after giving a couple more kilos to the neighbours, eating a kilo in spaghetti sauce and eating a tomato salad every lunchtime for weeks.
But I've still got even more left that are either completely ripe or almost ripe.
I used
this recipe to make the chutney.
It tasted a little overly vinegary when I tasted it, but I didn't do the proportions quite right (I had about 10% too many apples and tomatoes, so I increased everything else by 10% as well, only I did it in my head, so it might not have worked out perfectly, and also I had to chuck a couple of tomatoes for looking funny inside and it was raining by then, so I didn't replace them, so I might not actually have properly had 10% more tomatoes and apples. On the other hand, the Internet said that the chutney would lose its vinegar sting over time, so it may not have been too much
The hardest thing about this is I didn't realise how much it would make . I started off using this pot:
and quickly realised I needed to switch to this pot:
This, however, was the least of my problems. The most of my problems was having enough jars and sterilising them. I had to go and buy 2 new Kilner jars because I realised the jars I had collected weren't going to have enough capacity and no one was selling any other kind of jam jar. They cost £2.50 per 0.5 l jar, which really annoyed me because, firstly, I think that's too big for chutney, but there weren't any smaller ones, and secondly, 0.5l of chutney in a jar would barely cost more.
Problem two was sterilisation. Boiling jars is a real pain because it's really hard to get a big enough pan to cover anything but the smallest jar in water in an upright position, especially when you're already using by far the biggest pan you own to make the chutney. Also, getting the pan up to temperature takes ages.
Luckily, the
BBC said I could sterilise them in the oven, so I did that for the bigger jars. I highly recommend doing that right from the start and only sterilising your lids and rubber seals in water (doing the lids in water is much easier space-wise, although you need to find a way of checking you're only at 82° C and not boiling). The oven thing also has the advantage that you can just take all the jars out of the oven on their tray and don't have to mess round trying to get them out of boiling water without ruining the sterilisation.
My next problem was how to put the lids on without removing their sterility - my hands definitely haven't been simmered at 82° for ten minutes, and also the lids were initially too hot to handle. Also, I quite often had to wipe spilled chutney off the rim of the jar, which I did with kitchen roll, which also isn't sterile. Anyhow, I'm just going to have to hope it was all sterile enough and reject any of the chutney if it tastes mouldy.
I'm currently listening to the jar lids pop down and form a vacuum as I write, so fingers crossed.
Mumsnet says I should now leave the chutney for 1-3 months to mature before I eat it.
Edited: Mumsnet was right. After a couple of months it turned into the most delicious chutney I've ever eaten. So delicious I've only been able to persuade myself to give one jar away and have been hoarding all the rest. This makes me want to keep the recipe so much that I'm recording it here for posterity (warning, it takes 4 hours):
1kg apples - peeled, cored and sliced
450 ml water
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
1kg tomatoes, sliced/chopped
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
85g sultanas
140g caster sugar
2 1/2 dessertspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 dessertspoons salt
560ml (1 pint) malt vinegar
1. Place apples and water in an extremely large large saucepan (jam-making size). Bring to the boil, reduce heat, and cook for 25 minutes, or until the apples are tender, stirring occasionally. Add more water as necessary to keep the apples simmering.
2. Wrap the mustard seeds in muslin or cheesecloth, and place with apples. Mix tomatoes, onions, garlic, sultanas, sugar, curry powder, cayenne pepper, salt and vinegar in with the apples. Stir until sugar has dissolved.
3. Bring the mixture to the boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for 3 hours, stirring occasionally, until a thick chutney remains. Remove and discard wrapped mustard seeds. While cooking, sterlise your jars (in the oven was easiest for me). Seal the chutney in the sterile jars. Store for at least one month before serving.
