Green tomatoes

Before I left for the UK, I had managed to make my green tomato chutney - well nearly, as it didn’t go quite according to plan. I think the issue was that I had tried to make up all the tomatoes in one batch, and there was just too much juice in the pot to reduce down and thicken properly. I was using a mix of red and green tomatoes, and some onion.

Actually, quite a lot of onion. The final thing in the mix was a few bottles of vinegar, oh, and some rich muscovado sugar, which helps give the chutney a rich deep colour.

The quantities are not exact, but as long as you have enough vinegar to balance out the sugar all will be well, so definitely taste it as it cooks. You can also add your preferred spices, such as ginger, chilli, cinnamon etc. I want this to be a general chutney for cheese, meats and patés, or simply to pop into a casserole to zing it up, so mine will certainly have a kick.

I definitely had too much on the go, and it was difficult to judge the set. After I bottled up the majority of the chutney I decided it was way too thin, so I did a bit of a test on a small quantity in the bottom of the pan, reducing it more to see what effect that would have. It thickened much better, so we tried this sample with some paté de campagne from the butcher, and it was all rather yummy. So what I’ve managed to do for now is effectively preserve the tomatoes in the vinegar in the jars, but when I return I want to cook them a bit more to improve the texture. After the little test I’m pretty sure that will work, we shall hopefully see next week, I will then share the recipe.