Mmmm Spicy Tomato Chutney!

Apologies for the long break. The recipe I am going to share with you in this post is not from Nigel Slater’s book. It is a chutney recipe that I have been making for years that just about everyone loves. I found it one Christmas when I had no money and decided to make presents instead, it is Mary Berry recipe but I have altered it to my own taste over the years. It goes excellent with cheese and crackers, especially blue cheese or extra mature cheddar. I have even been known to have it in a post drunken night sausage or bacon and egg sandwich.

The ingredients:

900g tomatoes

3 red peppers, 1 large aubergine and 1 green pepper (total weight of about 900g/2lb)

700g onions , peeled and fairly finely chopped, by hand or in a food processor

4 fat cloves garlic , crushed

2 whole fresh chillies with the stalk chopped off.

350g granulated sugar

300ml/½pint white wine vinegar or distilled malt vinegar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed

1 tbsp cumin seeds crushed

1 tbsp paprika (You can use smoked)

½ tsp cayenne pepper

1 ½ tbsps Cornflour dissolved in water

First you need to remove the skins from the tomatoes, I hate this job but it has to be done otherwise it affects the texture of the chutney. With a sharp knife put a shallow cut on either side of the tomatoes, boil some water and pop them in for about a minute (turn the heat off too). Once you see the skin start to come away put them into cold water, preferably ice cold so that they don’t start to cook.

While they are cooling toast the cumin and coriander seeds in a pan until you can smell the spices then crush them and mix together with the other spices.

I really recommend that you chop the onions in a food processor along with the chilli finely, it makes life a lot easier. I know in the photos there is no chilli. I didn't have any at the time so I added two teaspoons of chilli powder.

Skin the tomatoes and chop with the rest of the vegetables. It needs to chunky otherwise it will disappear when you cook it. Put them all including the onions and garlic into a large heavy based pan. It does look like a lot but it will cook down. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for 1 hour.

Add the sugar, vinegar, salt and spices to the pan and stir in. Now the original recipe says to reduce for 30 minutes until the surplus liquid has evaporated, I have tried this over and over again and on one occasion burnt it because I left it cooking too long. A friend suggested cornflour, so the last batch I made I added 1 ½ tablespoons of cornflour dissolved in water. It did the trick and didn’t affect the taste.

To sterilise the jars either put them in the dishwasher, wet them then put them 2 at a time in the microwave for a minute, or put them in a hot oven (wet) for a few minutes. Put the chutney into them while it is hot and seal straight away. It usually fills four (and a bit) 500g jars or seven 300g.

It should be matured for 3 months but it rarely lasts as long as that ;)