I love a productive garden and although I haven’t yet managed to produce a good quantity of red peppers, I do manage to grow red onions and plenty of tomatoes. So, at least some of this recipe this year, for me, was from our garden. I like chutneys and pickles, I find they are a nice accompanyment for cheese and with other foods like sausages and cold meats. If you make chutneys, you will find that they get better over time. If you store your chutney for 3 months, it allow all the flavours to blend and the pickling spice to permeate more into the mix. So, you can make some now and have a lovely full flavour chutney ready to open or to give away for Christmas!!! Having said that, it is fine to eat them as soon as they have cooled from cooking as well!
Ingredients.
2 Large Red Onions – chopped
3 Large Red Peppers – diced
500g + Tomatoes
280 mls White Wine Vinegar
200g Light Muscovado Sugar
1 Tbsp Pickling Spices
Approx 3 – 4 Clean Jars
Method.
1. Warm all the ingredients (except the sugar) in a large pan.
2. Add the sugar once warmed and stir until it is dissolved.
3. Bring this mix to boil then simmer until the chutney thickens and you can part it using a wooden spoon. (The length of time this takes depends on the juiciness of your tomatoes. This batch took an hour on a fairly high simmer to reach this stage.
4. When the chutney is getting towards being thick enough. Sterilise your clean jars by heating them in the oven at 130 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes.
Of all the chutneys I have made, this is my favourite. I am not keen on hot spicy food so I tend to take the chillies out of the pickling spices. I find it still makes a lovely chutney but of course, you can leave the chillies in if you prefer. Hopefully you will give the recipe a go and let me know what you think of it!