Sweet Tomato Chutney

evelyn/athens's Note:

From 'An Invitation to Indian Cooking' by Madhur Jaffrey. This is one of Madhur Jaffrey's favorite sweet chutneys, she always spoons out a small bowl for all her dinner parties. It goes with almost all foods and is very popular. Store, bottled, in the refrigerator. It keeps for months.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 2.5 cups

• 1 head garlic, peeled,coarsely chopped
• 1 piece fresh ginger, about 2 inches long,1 inch thick and 1 inch wide,peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes (or 2 lbs fresh tomatoes if they taste like a tomato should)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/8-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (personal preference)
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons blanched slivered almonds

Directions:

1. Put the chopped garlic, ginger and 1/2 cup of the vinegar into the container of an electric blender and blend at high speed until smooth.
2. In a 4-quart, heavy-bottomed pot with non-metallic finish, place the tomatoes and juice from the can, the rest of the vinegar, the sugar, salt and cayenne pepper (or, if you prefer, add the cayenne at the end, a little at a time, stirring and tasting as you do so).
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Add puree from blender.
5. Lower heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until chutney becomes thick.
6. (A film should cling to a spoon dipped in it.) Stir occasionally at first, and more frequently later as it thickens.
7. You may need to lower the heat as the liquid diminishes.
8. You should end up with 2 1/2 cups of chutney, and it should be atleast as thick as honey after it cools.
9. If the canned tomatoes you used have a lot of liquid in them, a longer cooking time may be required, resulting in a little less chutney.
10. Add the almonds and the raisins.
11. Simmer, stirring, another 5 minutes.
12. Turn heat off and allow to cool.
13. Bottle.
14. Keep refrigerated.

Reviews

[Jenny Mac]

Fantastic Chutney....This is like a life sentence this one..if you start making it you can't stop. It is a well known one on the UK food sites and I make it all the time now. I often add some chopped sun dried tomatoes to it in the last few mins of cooking, rather than the raisins or almonds. Very well worth trying... a terrific recipe.The great thing is that it doesn't need to be stored before using unlike a lot of chutneys.

[Cooking with Gill]

I love this chutney, I've made it a few times and adjust the spicyness depending on who is coming for dinner.