Waiter! There's something in my... savoury preserve!

When Johanna announced the theme of savoury preserve for this month's WTSIM I just knew I wanted to take part. I didn't really grow up with savoury preserves as it's not very much of a Dutch thing. So apart from shop bought gherkins and onions the only preserve we ate was green tomato chutney. This recipe had come from an English friend of my parents before we were born and somehow it stuck in my mums repertoire. Every year she would grow tomato plants to harvest the unripe green ones (as they're hard/impossible to buy) and make this chutney. Strangely, we only ate it with Nasi Goreng but I always loved it!

Moving to the UK opened a whole new preserving world for me and I still enjoy making and eating lots of different ones. However, this one will always stay my favourite and I've now reached the point of growing my own green tomatoes to be able to make it each year.


PS. the roundup has now been posted and I'm already planning some serious preserving as there's so much stuff I want to try!

Green Tomato Chutney makes 6 400g jars
2.5 kg green tomatoes, sliced
50g onions, chopped
150g yellow raisins
150g black raisins
500g sugar
1 liter wine vinegar
30g salt
15 g peppercorns

Put the tomatoes, onions, salt and peppercorns in a large bowl and leave overnight. The next day, bring the sugar and vinegar to the boil in a large non-reactive pan. Add the raisins and simmer for 5 min before adding the tomato mix. Simmer everything on low heat until the mixture starts to thicken (45 min) and divide the chutney over some well cleaned pots that have been sterilized in the oven for 10 min at 110°C. Cover, leave to cool and store in a dark and cool place.