Just as the North East of America was contemplating it's first brush with the iron fist of winter, my husband rushed out to his vegetable patch and hauled in about 15lbs of green, orange and red tomatoes.  While the snow, sleet and howling winds whistled around the house, the lights flickering ominously and the all too regular loud crack and thud of yet another tree branch crashing to the ground, I thought it might be the perfect time to make my first ever batch of chutney.

I wasn't entirely sure what the procedure was but it all worked out fine.  The recipe is not exactly precise - I was a little jumpy at the time and forget to write everything down.  I'm not sure it actually matters if you put in 10 or 14 tomatoes to be honest, it all seemed to cook nicely together in the end.  

I think I used about 20 tomatoes (green, orange and red) all different shapes and sizes - so don't worry too much about a number. Finely chopped.

1 onion (very finely chopped)

2 apples (skin on - cored and finely chopped)

3 cloves of garlic (minced)

1/2 inch of ginger root, grated

4 small peppers from the garden (they were VERY mild) finely chopped

1/4 cup of brown sugar

200 ml of white vinegar

black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon dried mustard

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

Chop the tomatoes and place them in a large stockpot with the vinegar.

Cook on low while you're chopping all the other ingredients - this takes a while.

Place the spices and the black pepper in a dry pan and toast them for a few minutes.

Add them to the tomatoes.

Add the sugar and stir well.

Add all the other ingredients.  Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. 

Cook for  approximately 40 minutes - or until no longer watery.

Tranfer to your sterilized jars - or a glass container and keep in the fridge.

This is wonderful will all manner of things - but especially a roast loin of pork.

I was very happy to be featured in Celebrations.com the other day for a pasta dish I posted not long ago.

http://insideabritishmumskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/pasta-with-roast-cauliflower-lemon-and.html