Today when I was taking down what was left of my tomato vines in the garden I had a bunch of green tomatoes left over, and I decided to make chutney.
Chutney is basically something that is semi-pickled that has a sweet and vinegary finish to it. In other words it’s spicy condiment made of fruits or vegetables with vinegar, spices, and sugar. Chutney has its origins in South Asia/India.
There are many recipes available that are easy to follow. I have been making chutneys much like fruit butters for years that I pretty much do it in my head.
This chutney consisted of eight medium and small sized green tomatoes small chopped / minced, two large apples peeled cored and minced, one chopped red onion, 1 cup golden raisins, 1 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons mustard seeds, 1 tablespoon pickling spice, couple of dashes of ground allspice, cloves, nutmeg, red pepper flakes, two whole cinnamon sticks, some grated fresh ginger, a couple teaspoons of salt, three ribs minced celery, 2 cups of minced sweet orange peppers that I had gotten at the farmers market, one minced jalapeno pepper seeded, and one minced medium hot pepper that I grew in my garden.
Tossed everything into a pot gave it a stir and turned on the stove and brought up to a boil and then reduced the heat, covered and simmered for 50 minutes.
I then put the chutney into sterilized jars. I did not give them a hot water bath. When my jars have cooled I will refrigerate and they will last a few months in the refrigerator, but realistically will be gone by the end of the holiday season.
I like to serve chutney not only with main courses of poultry and pork, but with cheese and crackers as an appetizer. Green tomato chutneys are especially delicious with turkeys at Thanksgiving.
we have some green tomatoes on vines still alive too….any thoughts on what to add instead of peppers? we cant eat ’em….maybe it would be fine without? And how immature can the tomatoes be? I have some that are smaller than golfballs (4th of July and Honey Delight). have never tried to make chutney!
I used sweet peppers because I didn’t have enough green tomatoes LOL. It was a case of necessity is the mother of invention. Just like I used apple cider vinegar instead of the malt vinegar which is preferred because I was out of malt vinegar. I used what was on hand. Try apples and tomatoes and shallots and red onion and garlic (I used two cloves). Celery was a new addition to me. Some people put a tiny bit of fennel or fennel seed in chutneys, I personally don’t because I don’t like the combination of that. I used whatever green tomatoes I had, and some were little too. A granny smith apple holds up well in chutney, but yesterday I forget what kind of apples I used – LOL it was whatever I had purchased at Pete’s.
thanks! got a big bowl of green tomatoes before the cold tonight!