Apple and Tomato Chutney 27/10/2010

I liked this recipe because you don’t need to peel, core and chop the apples. Having done it for some many recipes it made a change. It also worked well with the reduced tomatoes from Tesco. Again thanks to Gillian Painter for the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo apples
• 1 kilo tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 kilo onions
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 Tablespoon curry powder
• 1 cup seeded raisins
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt to taste
• 3 cups vinegar

Method:

Prepare and stew apples in a very small quantity of water till tender. I took this to mean just chop the apples and throw in the pot with a cup of water. My only problem with this was trying to ensure the resultant stewed apples didn’t burn the bottom of the pan, therefore I suggest not putting it on too high a heat.

Skin tomatoes ( in boiling water). I put the tomatoes into a bowl, covered them with boiled water, let them stand for a few minutes, made a slight incision with a knife and was able to peel them. I guess you can google and find videos that show how this is done.

Once skinned chop them up with the onions and garlic. Add all of this and the remaining ingredients to the apple and cook gently for about 2 hours. Please note that you should add one cup of vinegar at a time. I found that two cups was about enough, but again will depend on your taste buds. Keep tasting and add the spices in small quantities, as in my experience I added too much cayenne pepper and it over-powered the other flavours.

When the chutney is thick enough, pour into jars and seal when cold. I felt this should be when the mixture comes off the spoon slowly. Too slow and hard to spread, too liquidy and it means the vinegar hasn’t been absorbed, or you added too much water earlier on.