Matt Williams is a marvellous cook. I know this because I spent a year watching his wife happily eating the extraordinarily delicious soups he had cooked her for lunch at work. His recipes are worth catching hold of, if you ever get the chance. And he’s been so kind to share his superb green tomato chutney recipe with us.
A couple of weeks ago, Issy wrote about ripening green tomatoes indoors. She mentioned there was always a risk of growing sick of green tomato chutney. I’m not sure that’s possible with this recipe!
This is a chutney I have carefully modified. I’ve removed the raisins, but if you want to add them back in, just reduce the sugar accordingly.
Don’t be afraid of chutney making, it is simplicity itself.
Ingredients:
2kg green tomatoes, chopped but not too fine
500g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
650g strong white onions, chopped
650g dark muscovado sugar
800ml of cheap malt vinegar
2 tsp salt
20g root ginger
10 small hot chillies
8g cinnamon bark (not ground)
2 tablespoons of mustard seeds
Equipment:
Heavy bottomed pan
Little muslin preserving bags
Sterilised jars (for info on sterilising jars go here: http://littlesliceoflife.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/how-to-sterilise-jars/ )
Chop however many green tomatoes you have rescued from your blighted plants, cutting out any little blighty bits if you are using big specimens removed after all hope of ripening was lost, like me. You should then modify the other quantities accordingly as the likely hood of having exactly 2kg of chopped green tomatoes is slim… I used 1.35kg and by proportionately reducing all the other ingredients I ended up with 4 lovely jars of chutney.
Take the ginger, chop it into a few chunks then crush it beneath the flat of your knife blade with your palm. Split the chillies length ways with your knife, don’t bother to remove the seeds, I recommend you use hot chillies (I used the Birds eye) as over the cooking process the heat is mellowed and you end up with a pleasant after warmth; my wife hates hot chillies and she loves this chutney so take her word for it!
Place the ginger, chillies, cinnamon and mustard seed into your muslin preserving bags (these can be got from most good kitchen shops and can be washed and reused many times). Now add these bags to all the other ingredients in your heavy bottomed pan. Place over a low heat and stir continuously until the sugar has been dissolved, then increase the temperature and bring to the boi, once it reaches this point turn it down again and let it simmer gently, stirring every 10-15 minutes (or more if you are an anxious cook like me) for two to three hours. It’s ready to go into jars when there is little thin liquid left and you see the pan for a few seconds, as pull your spoon across the bottom, before the chutney oozes back on itself to fill the gap. Don’t forget to fish out the preserving bags before jarring up and beware of the chutney catching and burning on the bottom towards the end.
Rich, sweet and spicy, I recommend it liberally applied to rough oatcakes with some good tangy-mature cheddar… yum!
Matt is also a tree expert. So do have a look at his blog.
