Our very small back garden was relatively neglected for the first nine years we lived here… there always seemed to be something more pressing to spend the money on, like new floorboards, or kitchen cupboards, but late in 2008 we finally agreed on what we wanted and got the builders in. We then had the pleasure of replanting the flowerbeds, and in Spring 2009 we decided that we’d like, for the first time, to try growing a few things to eat, beyond the usual pot of basil on the kitchen windowsill.
As the year went on, we had a bumper crop of fresh herbs, red chillis and green jalapeno peppers, small ‘continental style’ gherkin-like cucumbers, all sorts of salad leaves, french beans, dwarf french beans, and runner beans galore. But most of all, tomatoes – cherry, beefsteak, plum and yellow to begin with, and a couple of ‘heritage’ varieties cropping later in the season.
Realising that we had far more beans and tomatoes than we could possibly eat, I turned to one of my favourite cookbooks, Leith’s Cookery Bible.
I’ve had this book since I think 1991 and I have to say, it’s been one of my most-used and most reliable ‘helpers’. I’ve made soups, starters, pates, puddings, main courses and now chutney, using this book either as an inspiration or by sticking religiously to the recipes it contains. I still think, for a general-purpose cookbook, this is one of the best investments you can make.
So it was to Leith’s that I turned for my first chutney inspiration. I tweaked and twiddled their Green Tomato & Apple Chutney recipe to suit the ripe red tomatoes from our garden, was delighted with the results, and then from that, developed a recipe to use the glut of small yellow tomatoes, from plants which we bought as ‘Sun Baby’ but which from their ‘plum’ shape I reckon must be the ‘Sun Belle’ variant.
So let’s start with those two recipes, and a few pictures to go with the yellow tomato version.
David’s Red Tomato Chutney (with thanks to Leith’s Cookery Bible)
1.3kg red tomatoes, quartered
225g cooking apple, peeled, cored and finely diced
225g dessert apple, peeled, cored and finely diced
1 large red pepper, deseeded and diced
2 large onions, peeled and diced
1 tsp salt
2 tsp fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
½ tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground white pepper
1x 15ml measuring spoon sweet paprika
550ml white malt vinegar
400g golden caster sugar
Put everything but the sugar into a large, heavy-bottomed pan, and cook gently until the volume is reduced by more than half, and the contents of the pan look fairly dry. Then add the sugar (at which point the mixture will go much more liquid), and cook again until thickened.
Sterilise your jam jars in the oven at 120-140ºC for 15 minutes; I put them all into a large roasting tin, for easier handling. Then remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes, standing on a heatproof surface or wooden block.
Pour the hot chutney into the jars, filling to just above the ‘shoulder’. If you use acid- and vinegar-proof screw-top metal lids, the chutney will retain its moisture content and remain quite soft, but if you use cellophane covers held in place with elastic bands, some of the moisture will gradually evaporate, giving you a denser chutney. Label when cold; try to leave the chutney to mature for a week or two before eating it!
David’s Yellow Tomato Chutney
1.65kg yellow tomatoes, quartered
280g (unpeeled weight) cooking apple, peeled, cored and diced
280g (unpeeled weight) dessert apple, peeled, cored and diced
625g yellow peppers, deseeded and diced (3 peppers)
560g unpeeled weight onion, peeled and diced (2 large onions)
1 tsp salt
90g fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp turmeric
3 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds, ‘popped’ with the cumin in 1 tbsp sunflower oil
650ml white malt vinegar
4 dried red chillies, chopped
500g golden caster sugar
Proceed pretty much as above, cooking everything but the sugar until the contents of your pan have reduced by at least half – with the larger quantity involved here, I found it easier to start with the tomatoes, apples, peppers and most of the vinegar in one pan, and the onions and spices in another, mixing them together when they had reduced enough to be combined.
When the mixture has cooked down and looks quite dry, add the sugar and cook again until it thickens. Pour or spoon the hot chutney into the sterilised jam jars and cover as above, with either acid- and vinegar-proof lids or cellophane covers.
