Tomato Chutney/Relish

From Chef Oonagh Williams of Gluten-Free Cooking with Oonagh

One of our favorite meals used to be French bread or Irish soda bread, cheese (Kerrygold Dubliner cheese about $4 for 1/2lb), pickles, chutneys. Very, very British meal, so easy to put together when you want to both eat and be lazy at the same time. I used to make homemade pickled onions with malt vinegar, again a very British thing and none of the other vinegars have the same flavor as the non gluten-free malt vinegar. And don’t forget we loved malt vinegar on our chips (french fries). At least we can still make chutneys/relishes that marry wonderfully with bread, but also with grilled meats, wraps, add to meat loaves, burgers, breakfast bagel, whatever you fancy. In England we don’t tend to ‘can’ our preserves.  I’ve found that this keeps well in fridge for about a month and is a small enough quantity to easily make again. My mother would make large quantities in a huge 3 foot across preserving pan. I found if I put hot relish in oven hot sterilized jam jar and lid that had been simmered in boiling water, tightened, then lid made popping sound after some minutes as sign of a vacuum.

We love this on a toasted Against the Grain roll with Dubliner cheese, and keep you going breakfast of portions of cooked bacon/ham/sausage with egg stirred in just so it holds together, not scrambled, on top of ATG roll with tomato relish underneath.

Tomato Chutney

makes enough for about 2 12oz jam jars

Ingredients:

• About 2 lbs (1000 g) tomatoes, either fresh or a 28oz can of San Marzano tomatoes in juice.  (I’ve also made this with the soft squishy tomatoes reduced at the market or leftover at home as long as they are not moldy. I do peel the larger fresh tomatoes by cutting X in stem end, putting in boiling water for a few minutes, then cold water, then peeling and taking out core from stem end. Cut into small dice, keep seeds and juices to add to pan. Remember cut this size is for bread, crackers etc. I just roughly chop tomatoes in pan with an immersion blender, before I add herbs or fruit. You don’t want a puree.)
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely crushed
• 1 tsp (5 ml) dried thyme or about 6 springs of fresh thyme. (Check that the dried thyme doesn’t smell moldy, I’ve found that a problem.)
• 1 bayleaf
• Salt and pepper, I used 1 tsp salt (5 ml) you might be used to more salt.
• 1/2 c (120 ml) sugar
• 1/2 c (4 fl oz, 120 ml) gluten-free apple cider vinegar. Please use vinegar that says made from apples or cider. If it doesn’t say this, it is probably distilled to be gluten-free but isn’t actually made from apples or cider.
• 1 tsp (5 ml) smoked paprika for just a very slight bite, optional. In England, we would use pickling spice or mustard seed, but that’s not so readily available everywhere.
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice. This is a blend of various spices, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, cardamom. Each brand varies, so does strength and flavor, but it’s an easy way of adding some spice without buying lots of spices.
• 1 Gala, Fuji, Braeburn apple, peeled, cored and cut very small, optional
• 1/2 c (12 ml) golden raisins (sultanas) optional

Directions:

1. Put all ingredients in a 6-8 cup pan. Cook covered over a low heat until very soft, liquid is reduced and almost gone, line is left in tomatoes when you draw wooden spoon through.

3. Original recipe said this would take about 30 minutes. I left the lid on and stirred it every now and again. Took less time, and I cooked it until liquid had evaporated even with lid on. You can smell the sugar smell when it is ready. Larger quantities will take longer. You need to cook it with lid on to start so that all vegetables become soft. You can then remove lid and cook until juices are evaporating. Don’t let it burn or become too dry.

3. Remove from heat, remove bay leaf and thyme stems and pour into sterilized glass jars. Let mellow for a day and then use it.