In a Pickle

Preserving food. Yum. This year I was hoping to experiment a bit with different preserving techniques. I have had some success with pickling, freezing and drying and I have made an exceedingly large amount of chutney.

In fact, a comedy amount of chutney. So much so that people will probably be getting chutney for Christmas and it will be forming a substantial part of my winter diet. But I can live with that.

So far I have made chutney with green tomatoes, regular tomatoes, tomatillos and aubergines - many featuring plenty of apple too and other bits and pieces. I think beetroot may soon be on the list too.

Tomatillos are fun. They have probably been in the UK forever, but seem to have become popular again recently. I have mentioned them before and they are another popular Latin American speciality - tasty in fresh salsas etc. I haven't got around to making salsa yet which is a shame, but chutney? Oh yes.

This year I grew an organic variety called Violet - apparently so-called because of the colour they ripen into:


Anyhow, here's a quick run through of some green tomato chutney I made back in September. I adapted the recipe from this one one by Keith Floyd from the BBC website. Most chutneys work along very similar lines though it seems. Firstly, of course, green tomatoes:


A big preserving pan is fairly essential when making chutneys and jams etc. Pop in the tomatoes and onions:


Followed by the apples, raisins, sugar, a little salt and a nice muslin bag full of chopped chillies and crushed ginger:


Lastly, pour in the vinegar and bring to the boil:


After a good long simmer things start to break down a bit and I gather you can just keep going as long as you like really depending on the final consistency you want:


The finished product needs to go in jars of course. Here is some of this year's stock:



Interestingly, I had some jars already although I quickly realised I would need some more. Looking on the internet and in shops I realised that one pound jars with lids cost anything from 40p upwards to buy new. In a perfect example of how crazy this world is, I quickly realised it would be cheaper to buy jars of something cheap and re-use them. Enter Tesco value pasta sauce at 27p a jar. Even bigger than a pound jam jar size and you can do something creative with the pasta sauce too! A good wash out and with the labels removed they are just the job.

It's been really satisfying making things using produce from the garden - especially knowing everything has been grown as organically as possible. As I mentioned earlier, I am now thinking of creative things to do with beetroot. I had no idea beetroot was so good for you. Chocolate beetroot cake is definitely on the list!