Tomato Chutney, definitely addictive.

This was the year of crop failures here on the Mount Ranch. Our apple and pear trees did not get enough chilling hours to produce fruit, first time ever and a devastating one for the resident orchardist.
I usually make a LOT of pear chutney, it's a popular item at the arts & crafts sale I do every fall.

I needed something to fill that niche...and I had just bought 40 lbs of "seconds" organic dry farmed tomatoes. In a quick search I found this tomato chutney recipe, it was billed as "adult catsup".
My usual sous chef has an extreme aversion to peeling tomatoes and I can't do it for long without thumb pain, so I enlisted my very good friend, Susan, to help. While she peeled the "love apples" ( old fashioned term for tomato), I peeled and chopped the garlic and onions.

I had no idea how this mixture would turn out so it was a bit risky to start with a double batch which is what I did. Luckily it was an instant hit here served the next day with burgers. In fact we liked it so much we took it with us on a camping trip the following week. We met our friends who were hiking the John Muir Trail to give them supplies.

They had been on the trail for twenty days and were so happy to have food that did not require rehydrating. We made them burger (beef and veggie) for dinner with this chutney as the star condiment. Even my friend Laurie who is not a fan of most chutneys pronounced this one: amazing. She liked it so much she bought a jar once she was back home :-)

Here is my (as always) modified version.

Amazing Tomato Chutney

    •    4 lb tomatoes, peeled, cored and chopped  ( I weighted them before peeling)
    •    1/4 c. minced garlic (about a medium sized head)
    •    1 c. chopped onions
    •    3/4 c. brown sugar
    •    3/4 c. white sugar
    •    1 c. cider vinegar
    •    1/2 cup white vinegar
    •    1 TB. pickling salt
    •    1 lemon, zested and juiced
    •    1 TB fresh grated ginger
    •    1/2 tsp. hot pepper flakes (or to taste)
    •    1 tsp. cumin seeds
    •    1/2 tsp. black pepper
    •    1/2 c. raisins, chopped


1) Here is my post on how to make peeling tomatoes relatively painless.

 2) Peel and chop the garlic and onions. You can do a coarse chop in a small food processor or do it by hand.
3) The recipe calls for chopping the raisins, you can leave them whole if you like.
4) The original recipe called for powdered ginger and cumin. These will certainly work but I like my modifications. Remember it's much easier to grate ginger if the root is frozen, it will also keep longer that way.
5) Combine all the ingredients in a heavy nonreactive ( stainless steel or enamel) 4-6 quart pot.
6) Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower heat and cook at a low simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours until thickened. Stir often as it thickens to prevent scorching. When I double recipe it took twice as long to boil down.
7) Can in half pint jars using a hot water bath for 10 minutes. As always use safe home preserving techniques, here is  a site with lots of information. The original recipe did mention that she had good results freezing this chutney.
Yield is about five half pint jars, depending on how much you cook it down.
Try it on potatoes and anything else that passes by your plate !!