“If you do not waste things, you are less likely to end up lacking”
my grandmother often told me and I could not (or did not want to) figure out what she meant with it.
When I read the fables of La Fontaine as a child I never liked The Ant and the Grasshopper, the sense of frugal living and saving for hard times did not appeal to me. And I invested all my pocket money in Bazooka chewing gum (does anybody still remember that horrid pink gum?). Live in the now and enjoy it to the fullest had a different meaning then.
I have changed a little bit over the years: where once I did not like to eat leftovers (you will not be surprised I still do not have a microwave in my household – but that is another story), I have become more antsy and love to preserve summer’s bounty of fruit and vegetables.
Gone is the wonderful season of sun-ripened tomatoes full of flavour and juices. I am left with some tomatoes varying from very green to slightly blushing.
This is my weight record tomato: 486 g
There are several ways to fare with your unripened tomatoes: You can put the in a dry place and they will slowly turn red but the flavour is not the same and they have far less succulent juice. But they are ok in a tomato sauce (sugo napoletano).
This year I came up with this recipe for a green tomato chutney (I cheated a little bit by also using my blushing and very firm beauties).
My beautiful bowl of green and not so green tomatoes
Ok, here we go:
Late Bloomers Green Tomato Chutney
Yield: 6 jars @ 250 ml
The nice thing about green tomatoes: you do not have to peel them.
Ingredients
1 kg tomatoes, cored and diced
150 g onion, sliced
2 fresh chillies, split, seeded and finely cut
50 g fresh ginger, grated
200 g cranberries, dried
250 ml malt vinegar (apple cider vinegar will also do nicely)
200 g light or dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon cumin
sea salt
Method
Dry roast spices in a large stainless steel pot, this way they release all their fantastic flavours.
Add all the other ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring vigorously to mix well.
Reduce heat to a low boil and cook, still stirring frequently, for 45 minutes, until the mixture is thick and jam like. The colour will change from green to a light brown.
In the beginning of the cooking process
In the end: the finished product, unlabelled yet
Once finished, ladle the chutney into clean hot (or sterilized) jars and sterilize.
Serve this wonderful chutney with an Indian meal, with your boiled meat or with a cheese platter.
Storage: Unsterilized chutney will keep in the refrigerator for about a month, canned chutney will keep a year.
Coming back to La Fontaine’s fable, there is so much more to it than meets the eye:
Are you an ANT or a GRASSHOPPER?
A teamworker or a loner?
Will you sing all summer or will you be busy storing and preserving?
Comments 35
Barbara, this was a brilliant post.
I loved Bazooka as a kid and I can’t believe that it wasn’t just a North American thing. My wife and I have never had a microwave either. We don’t believe in them. They change the taste and texture of food. Sure, the texture changes when you reheat something but depending on what it is you can certainly take better care reheating on a stovetop.
The funny thing is I am more of an ant somedays and somewhat a grasshopper others but then again I am relating this to how I work. I lead a team so as the lead I participate and do my part in the tribe (or the colony) – I am one of the workers too but also as a leader I am always looking for new opportunity to match my growing skills and bring work back so I am off hopping about independently. Different context.
The recipe does sound interesting. I may attempt it in a small quantity as there are only us two and we don’t eat much meat anyway. Would that go well with lamb?
@rdopping Yes, me too with the Bazooka bubble gum Ralph! I do still love Sweetarts too! Remember them?
@rdopping Hi Ralph, you make my day – thank you so much! You may have noticed my blogging inactivity (just so I could make myself at home over at yours!) and therefore, this means a lot to me.
Chutneys go well with anything, that’s the lovely thing about them, I prefer them to jams as they are less sweet and have more to offer in different flavours. I have noticed that my jams trend to taste more like chutneys …
Cranberries, ginger and allspice! Barbara! This sounds delicious!I’ll take three bottles, please 😉
Lori
@Lori Haha, Lori, no problem, I will send them snail mail to save on postage, ok?
See you later and thanks for coming here!
@Late_Bloomers It’s always a pleasure to come here Barbara!
I’m a dubble bubble chewing gum gal (although I don’t chew gum anymore). I also bought packs of gum that had Beatles cards in them (of course!), with the worst tasting gum…but it was all about the Beatles cards. I’m definitely a teamworking, singing, storing but then enjoying kinda gal. And I’m with @Lori on the “sounds delicious”. Cheers! Kaarina
@KDillabough How well I remember those pumped (up or out?) cheeks, nearly suffocating on the gum! The Bazooka regularly let me down, losing all flavour and sweetness after 5 minutes, I stuck them in a tin box and added additional sugar to it – till today this remains my secret!
How come we do not chew gum any longer? My mother used to live in Spain and it was a common sight to see a police man or woman chewing gum (including blowing enormous bubbles) directing traffic downtown (well, in the village!)!
I have a microwave and I still chew Bazooka. I’ll never forget the first time I bought some in Israel and read the cartoon in Hebrew. I had thought it was only something people ate in the US, but I was quite wrong.
That chutney looks delectable.
@Josh/ http://joshuawilner.com/ And a very good morning to you, Josh! What do you use your microwave for? For a short time I had one and only used it to defrost the cat’s food and I still have that obnoxious smell of meat in my nose, argh!
That was Bazooka Joe, was it not? I felt so sophisticated reading the cartoon whilst trying to make bubbles and gagging on the effort. Honestly, you still like it? Wonderful.
I’m not sure if I will ever get to the item on my life list that says, “Learn to cook”, but if I do, this looks like a yummy thing to try. More than cooking, though, I do love photographing foods. If I ever took a class it would let me create all sorts of interesting subjects for my Nikon. The best part is I’d get to nom them afterwards.
@ExtremelyAvg Hi, Brian, big YES to food photography, I find it a rather big challenge as I refuse to alter my food in any unnatural way such as glazing, painting or whatsnot! And I shy from editing my photos (do not ask me why).
@Late_Bloomers Editing photos is an acquired taste. Not everyone enjoys spending fifteen minutes to several hours to get it just right. I have a photo of a beautiful old brick warehouse that I love, but when I took it, there was a telephone line running across the middle. I carefully removed the pole and line, but it took me close to three hours. In the end, it was worth it, though.
@ExtremelyAvg Aha, an acquired taste, what an interesting thought and I can relate to it and save it for a later date … Three hours for editing one photo, this says a lot about you, I am impressed.
Definitely agree! It is so important not to waste anything!
@TerezaLitsa Hi, Tereza, absolutely and I am always impressed with how resourceful some of my friends are, I still have a lot to learn, what I really love is using some leftover roast for a tomato sauce and cooking it slowly for hours so it will fall apart – heaven!
I agree – it’s important not to waste. Just stop for a moment and think “what can I do with that?” and most of the time there is an idea 🙂 Thank you Barbara for sharing that with us.
@KlaudiaJurewicz Hi, Klaudia, and a lovely Sunday morning to you! So with you but when do we ever stop for a moment? Attitude and habit, is it not? It is beastly cold today and I am going to boil meat for dinner, soul food, with lots of aromatic spices and some chillies for inner warmth. And I will use the leftovers for a beef salad.
@Late_Bloomers sounds like a very good plan for Sunday. I’m at the Polish Festival in Phoenix – that mean a lot of good (not so light) food 🙂
@KlaudiaJurewicz … oh well, who cares, once in a while we need some substantial food as well! Polish Festival – this sounds fascinating, with lots of music I hope!
Thanks for sharing, recipes are also great to have
@CarlyAlyssaThorne Good morning, Carly, my pleasure. Do you collect recipes and when you cook, do you follow them word by word or alter them according to your taste?
That looks delicious, Barbara! I love all the colors in the dish. I’m definitely a black and white kind of gal in the sense that I have moments of wanting to save like crazy and then other moments where I spend like crazy. And then I hope that everything balances out. =P
@Samantha Bangayan And a lovely Sunday morning to my far away friend, Sam! Yes, I loved the colours as well, so bright and alive.
With you all the way on black and white, especially when I am at a food market, there is no stopping me but I try to use up everything, especially now with winter back I love to make soups and this is an ideal dish to be more economical.
oooo Denis would love this 🙂
@JanineRipper Good morning Janine! And what about you? Would you love it as well? It should go well with your diet, you’d only have to replace sugar with fructose, no? Loved your post on public speaking, will go over to your place now!
@Late_Bloomers Morning! Evening here. Spent the day with my nieces 🙂 Hmmm I’m not a big chutney person but I would try it 🙂 Glad you liked the post!
Ooo..having not long since made my own green tomato chutney, I will be noted this recipe to try in place of mine next year. And isn’t the smell just divine as it stews down in the pan? Yum.
@Lucylastica2 Lucy, we absolutely have to exchange recipes or we could meet up in the middle with two jars of chutneys and start noming! What I love best is the moment when dry roasting spices and they start to release their fragrances – heaven!
I can remember that chewing gum! I love the green tomato chutney and hopefully I will have some tomatoes to harvest this year and preserve 🙂
@tandysinclair LOL, then we should make sure that spring finally makes it to your part and your tomatoes may have a chance to grow! I loved our weather conversation on twitter.
Do you grow tomatoes from seeds or do you buy seedlings?
I remember the chewing gum too. It used to make beautiful bubbles if my memory serves me well…Thanks for another yummy recipe !
@JSJ2020 Hi, Muriel, lovely to see you here, ahh, those bubbles, probably lovelier in our memory than in reality, I remember always being told of for chewing gum: this is not ladylike, as if I had known what a lady was ….
Hi Barb,
First i love the closeup pics which clearly shows the freshness of the veg. Next the chutney and looks so yummy..:) My wife is so much interested in cooking and lets surely try this. Thanks for sharing the tasty recipe.
@ManickamVijayabanu Hi Manickam, Welcome and thanks for your lovely compliments. By all means, try out this recipe and let me know what you ate this green tomato chutney with, I am always interested in hearing about new combinations. Have a lovely day and look forward to seeing you back!