CHUTNEYS & PRESERVES RED TOMATO CHUTNEY
The addition of granulated cane sugar towards the end of cooking keeps the rich, red colour of the tomatoes.
Makes about 2.5kg
3.5kg red tomatoes 225g onions 2 tbsps salt 2 tsps ground ginger 2 tsps ground cloves 5ml cayenne pepper 450g granulated cane sugar 425ml distilled malt vinegar
1 Slice the tomatoes, peel and finely chop the onions. Place the tomatoes, onions, spices, salt and half the vinegar into a large preserving pan.
2 Put a lid on the pan and bring it to the boil, then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer.
3 Cook, stirring occasionally, for one to two hours until the ingredients are very soft.
4 Remove the lid and add the sugar and remaining vinegar. Continue to cook gently until the contents of the pan are thick and no “free” liquid remains. Stir frequently to prevent the chutney sticking to the bottom of the pan. Place clean jars in a pre-heated oven at 140 C for 15 minutes.
5 Remove the pan from the heat and the jars from the oven. Pour the chutney into the jars and seal. Store in a dry cupboard for two to three months before opening.
First Preserves, Vivien Lloyd, Citrus Press AUTUMN FRUIT CHUTNEY
900g plums, stoned 900g cooking apples, after peeling and coring
900g tomatoes 900g onions 1-2 garlic cloves 30g salt 1 / 2 tsp cayenne pepper 1 / 2 tsp mace 1 / 2 tsp allspice 60g root ginger 450g sultanas 1 pint vinegar 450g Demerera sugar
Method: As above.
FOODLOVERMAGAZINE.COM | 41 TOP TIP
The Aardvark’s Pantry
In the beginning, when Adam and I first got together, we were fondly labelled amongst chums as Tom and Barbara. I didn't mind too much; if I had a bottom half as pert as Felicity Kendall's in The Good Life, I would be ecstatic. I expect Adam would too! Many a delightful evening in the late summer was spent squirreling around field boundaries and hedgerows with maroon stained fingers and mouths itching like mad from chronic nettle rash. All for a good cause though. Later, back in the kitchen and elbow deep in chopped fruit and
TAMMY MOLESWORTH Owner of Devon based Gin Pennant, food marketing and events agency
vegetables, our ears ringing to a cacophony of clinking jam jars, we would argue amicably about how much chilli was too much chilli in the Chutney del Casa. Our little cottage (and no doubt everyone elses in the village) would honk of simmering vinegar and burning brown sugar. Chop, chop, chop; stir, stir, stir; pour, pour, pour. Taste, taste, taste never happened on account of "The Campari Effect". When I was little, Campari looked so beguiling: pink (magnetic to a small child) and gorgeously syrupy (surely an indication of sticky Ribena like sweetness?) But after endless badgering at one or other of the parental department, one felt so bitterly (quite literally) disappointed at the dry, grown up taste issued forth with warnings of the "sippers not gulpers" variety. Chutney is much the same. You have to make it and then ignore it because straight out of the jam kettle, it's pretty revolting.
Four to six months later though, Tom and Barbara can boast a delicious preserve mountain to rival Mr Branstone Pickle's. As September slipped into October, we would beaver away;
Be bold and contrast the flavours of your chutney – don’t be afraid to try a mix of fruits and vegetables.
producing copious quantities of jam, pickles and fortified fruity liqueurs. Home-made limoncello (preferably dashed over vanilla ice-cream), elderflower champers, sloe gin, bull-ace vodka and gingerwine have been outright winners. Elderberry and gorsewine have proved somewhat more disasterous. A bit of creative labelling though, and they've re-emerged victorious as "fruity vinegars". At least one of us works in marketing! There's a cupboard in our dining room bulging with pretty coloured bottles, raffia string and old fashioned parcel tags. A horder's Mecca of quaffable and edible snifters and snorkers. And come December, Tom and Barbara were quids in. Not for us the monotonous and freezing pavement pounding or painful deliberations of who gets what for Christmas. Eminently smug. But how the tide has turned. The name calling chums have cottoned on and glorious bottles of this and that are coming right back at us from the DFT's (down from towns)."A little bit of this from our week-end away" or "have a taste of that, the wotsits grow round the back of the allotments". Each year it gets more and more competitive, the ingredients more secretive and the sipping and tasting debates more fevered. Oh! What a wonderful war!
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