We’re definitely getting to that time of year when everything’s $2 a kilo and you need extra arms to carry it all home from the market. The tomatoes were looking pretty good the other week at Preston, and so I got enough to make chutney.
I wanted to use an Australian Women’s Weekly recipe that’s in their big “COOK” book, but that’s in a box somewhere between San Francisco and here, so I had to go googling to find a copy of it. Here it is.
- 1kg (10 medium) ripe tomatoes, peeled, chopped
- 2 large (400g) apples, peeled, chopped
- 2 medium (240g) onions, chopped
- 1 ½ cups brown (malt) vinegar
- 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- ¼ teaspoon chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon dry mustard
- ¾ cup sultanas
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 2 teaspoons ground allspice
Throw everything in a big pot and bring to the boil, then keep it going til it reduces in volume and thickens up. I find that’s usually a couple of hours, though that might be in part because I make double or triple batches. A smaller batch in a wider pan will presumably thicken up quicker. (If it’s just not thickening and you’re getting impatient, you can stir a spoonful of cornstarch into a bit of water, then mix it through the chutney.)
Nine jars of tomato chutney; this is a double batch.
I canned my chutney in recycled jars of various sizes, using new lids from Green Living Australia. Because the chutney has so much vinegar and sugar in it, it doesn’t need heat processing. I just make sure the jars are really clean (the dishwasher’s good for this because of the high heat) then when I’ve closed the jars I turn them upside down on the counter and let them cool standing on their lids. The heat of the chutney sterilises the lids, and the poptops on them all popped in like they’re meant to.
If you’re a bit aghast at the lack of heat processing, all I can say is that generations of my family have done it this way and it’s always been fine. In fact, heat canning’s almost unknown in Australia. The worst I’ve ever seen with this method is an occasional batch with mold growing on top (which you should throw out), but I haven’t had one of those in years. Anything that’s heavy on the salt, vinegar, sugar, and/or alcohol should be fine to do this way. It’s only when you have things that you’re trying to keep without these natural preservatives — for instance, tomato sauce, or canned fruit and vegetables in juice or water — that you really truly need to do the heat thing.
(That said, use your common sense and judge your own risks; I don’t want to be sued for giving you bad advice. If you’re wary, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have some good books with details on how to heat can things, and I’ll be doing some of that later in the summer and will post about it here when the time comes.)
The best thing about this chutney? The whole house smelled like I remembered from summers at my Nanna’s house. This is the authentic Nanna chutney recipe, guaranteed. Nanna and Poppa would have had it with sausages or rissoles, but I’ll most likely be eating it with cheese and crackers, or on fried egg sandwiches, all year round.
