Tomato Recipes

A few recipes from newsletter readers …

Tomato Ketchup Recipe Link:

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/tomato-ketchup-recipe-tomato-sauce/

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Here’s a recipe for green tomato chutney, taken from my 1965 copy of “Adam the Gardener”. Those of us of a certain age will remember this Sunday Express weekly guide to gardening.

4lb green tomatoes, dipped in boiling water, peeled and sliced
1lb apples, peeled and sliced
0.5lb onions, peeled and sliced

Put 0.5lb Demerara sugar, 1 pint vinegar, 2 teaspoons salt, and a muslin bag containing 1oz pickling spice into a saucepan. Add the other ingredients and boil till tender.

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GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY
Ingredients:
• 2.5kg green tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 0.5kg onions, finely sliced
• 4 tsp / 30g salt
• 1L malt vinegar
• 0.5kg soft light brown sugar
• 250g sultanas, roughly chopped
• 3 tsp / 20g ground pepper

Equipment:
• Preserving pan or other large lidless pan
• 7 – 10 jars with lids
• Food wrap / cling film
• Sticky labels

Approximate cost: 2.5 GBP per batch (if you grew the tomatoes).
Finely slice your onions and washed green tomatoes, cutting out any bad bits. Add to a large bowl and stir. Add the 4 teaspoons of salt, stir again and then cover with food wrap or a large plate and leave overnight.

This will draw out lots of the tomato juices and help enhance the flavours. This step can be skipped if you don’t want to leave it overnight, just reduce the salt by half.

I thoroughly recommend doing this step as it will reduce the time you need to cook your chutney for. Much of the cooking time is just reducing the liquid down so it’s a thick enough consistency for chutney.

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Recipe for Tomato Sauce in lieu of gravy: goes great with a variety of meat cuts.

Half an onion, chopped;
8 – 10 medium sized tomatoes (basically use what’s available – you can use 60 cherries if you want), chopped in half/quarters;
6 mushrooms, sliced;
Garlic clove, crushed;
Salt, pepper and italian seasoning to taste:

Warm enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan and soften the onion for 5 minutes, along with the crushed garlic clove.

Add the tomatoes and mushrooms, then the seasoning, stir and then leave on low heat with a lid on for 20 minutes.

Transfer the sauce to a food mixer and liquidize for 15 seconds at high speed.

Return the sauce to the pan and reduce with the lid off according taste.

You could probably add a bit of cream if you want, but our household has those with allergies to cream, so we don’t bother.

It goes very well with lamb chops, any form of potato and would probably work with steak as well.