Tomato Chutney

I kindly liberated a page from my hairdresser's latest Women's Day magazine (with her permission of course!) because I thought this recipe looked the easiest of all chutney recipes I had found.  I halved the recipe given, because I didn't want to use 1 1/2 kg of my tomatoes up.  I'm hoping that I can get really good at this one, because it'd be a cute little gift to give!


Classic Tomato Chutney - from Women's Day
Makes: 2 1/2 cups
Preparation: 35 minutes
Cooking: 2 hours
Weight Watchers ProPoints: 1 point per serving (my logic is as follows: 1 cup = 16 tablespoons, so you'd get about 40 tbsp from this recipe.  1 tbsp = 0 points, but about 1/10th of a bottle is 1 point.  Clear as mud?)

750g ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 1/4 cups white wine vinegar
1/4 cup sultanas
1/2 large onion, chopped
1/2 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (makes it quite spicy!)
2/3 cups caster sugar

(Preparation - Peel the tomatoes by first scoring the base of them with a cross and then blanch in boiling water for 1 minute, then transfer to a bowl of chilled water.  The skin will peel off easy as pie.)

1. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients except sugar.  Stir on med-high heat until the mixture comes to the boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, until tomatoes soften (long enough to do quite a bit of knitting!) 
2. Stir in sugar until dissolved.  Bring to the boil.  Cook for a further 20-30 minutes, stirring often (but not constantly) until mixture thickens.
3. Pour into sterilized jars and seal (I sterilized mine in the microwave as a helpful website suggested.  Bad idea, they all cracked.  Waste of very cute jars.)  Store in a cool, dry cupboard for up to three months.  Keep in the fridge after opening. 

It's ridiculously tasty on homemade hamburgers (all gourmet-like!) and really good on a hunk of a milder tasting cheese (we've already finished 1 little bottle.)

**update - after making a batch of green tomato chutney, I've realised that this one is still too liquidy.  Next time I make it, I'll let it thicken more - Phill reckons it's more of a sauce.  Nonetheless, I'm still pretty pleased with my first efforts at chutney making.