I've had a yen for chutney for a long time... so instead of making
tomato soup with my discount roma tomatoes (btw, when I cut them up
most of them looked very good. Only a few were overripe or had dodgy
spots so they were very good value indeed!) I decided to dig out
mama's recipe and have a go at recreating it.

Firstly, the ingredients... 2 pounds of fresh tomatoes, 3 onions, 2
apples (I thought it would need more, but 8oz isn't very much!), 1/2
cup raisins (sultanas for Brits/Aussies, not those horrible giant
brown things!), assorted spices, 1 heaping cup of brown sugar and
vinegar. I used 1 cup apple cider vinegar and 3/4 cup plain white
vinegar because that was what I had handy.
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Next came the spice mix... The recipe said to leave the spices whole
and fish them out at the end but I don't like my chutney too smooth
and boring so I leave them in! I chopped up two cloves of garlic and a
piece of ginger as finely as I could. Then I added a teaspoon of salt,
a pinch of cayenne pepper, three cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of mustard
seeds, and a generous shake of cajun spice for heat (the recipe said
to use three whole chillis but I don't have any)
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Then everything was mixed together in the pan and it was ready to
cook. Bring it up to the boil and then turn the heat down and simmer
it for two hours. (I meant to take a picture during cooking but I
forgot!)
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Towards the end of the cooking time, get a baking tray and some clean
glass jars and put them into the oven. Turn it on to 250F and leave
them there until the oven heats up and then for about 15 minutes more.
Turn the oven off and leave the jars in there until the chutney is all
cooked. (no pics of this... empty glass jars aren't exactly exciting!)
I've been saving peanut butter jars for the last three months or so,
ever since I got the yen to do some home preserving and I realised
that they'd be perfect.

Then comes the good bit. When the chutney is done, pull the jars out
of the oven and sit them on a wooden board. Then ladle or pour the hot
chutney into them and cover the jars with some doubled over gladwrap
to keep the germies out. My 1/2 batch of chutney made three jars, with
a little bit left over that I put in the fridge in a bowl to cool down
ready for dinner. When the jars have cooled awhile, you can screw the
lids on over the top of the plastic and your chutney is done!
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And now for the piece de resistance... since I had some leftover
chutney cooling in the fridge, I decided to make chicken and rice for
dinner tonight (also because DH was working late and he still isn't
home yet, and and chicken and rice is easily reheatable!)
The chicken and rice is pretty basic. Chicken breast, onion, garlic,
carrot, celery, a big tomato, a can of chicken broth, and a bunch of
assorted seasoning. I like to use a mixture of cajun seasoning and
dried herbs, with a bit of za'tar added at the end. I also put some
ham in for a little extra smokiness. Cook the rice, set it aside and
cook the chicken mixture in the same pan. Then mix it all together at
the end and turn off the heat. I love peas but DH can't stand them, so
I mixed peas into my bowl... and then I finished it off with a
generous amount of the tomato chutney. Yum!!!!!!
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