Spicy Tomato Chutney

This week I had an abundance of tomatoes..I am talking about a lot of tomatoes..seriously. To quote Grey in Grey”s Anatomy (which started again this week- yahoo!). Seriously! Tons of them coming in from my little, yet abundant garden. Many of my tomatoes are yellow this year- I am not quite sure why. You see, I cannot remember when I was planting the tomatoes this spring, if I actually planted yellow tomatoes or not, but as it turns out, I have a profuse amount of yellow tomatoes. Perfectly formed, ripe.. but still..yellow. It”s probably due to lack of sunshine and too much water this summer, but its all okay in my books because they still taste delicious! To give credit where credit is definitely due – I saw this recipe last fall on another blogger”s site and bookmarked it for this year because it sounded very “yum-0″. Colour note: Mine is more a wonderful orange color, due to the mixture of yellow and red tomatoes. Here is where you can find the original recipe: http://becksposhnosh.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-make-wonderful-spicy-tomato.html And the following recipe is what I did. It is very similar, but still different. Enjoy! Spicy Tomato Chutney 8 tablespoons of Olive oil 2 tsp mustard seeds (brown or black) 2 tsp fennel seeds 2 tsp cumin seeds 4 dried red chilies 1 tsp cayenne pepper 4 cups sugar 2 1/2 cups white distilled vinegar 4 1/2 lbs tomatoes – yellow and red salt to taste Heat your olive oil in a large tall pan. Add in mustard seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds,dried red chilies and cayenne pepper. Cook a couple of minutes until the seeds start to pop and spit. Reduce the heat to low,add the vinegar and sugar – stir until sugar is dissolved into the vinegar. Core all of your tomatoes – then add them into the vinegar solution. You can leave the skins on because you are going to simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally, where after this hour, start to pick out the tomatoes skins with a pair of tongs. Continue to cook for about a half hour more on low until the tomatoes have all turned to mush and sauce thickens up a bit. Pick out what you see left of the dried (now wet!) chilies. Note: the consistency to me seems quite runny, but so be it.. I think it will still be delish. Get your jars all sanitized – it should be about 7-8 medium sized jars. Pour the spicy chutney into your jars, and seal. Put filled jars into a hot water bath (cover the jars at least 2 inches of water) for another 10-15 minutes, remove to cool – you should hear the pop as you take them out, but don”t freak out if they don”t pop straight away..some will pop later. If you have jars that do not “pop” you will need to store these in the fridge and eat within 1.5 – 2 weeks. This chutney is spicy! I have not decided what I will eat it with just yet – I am thinking with cheese or on sandwiches and burgers.. ah.. decisions, decisions.  Read More