Not so Green Tomato Chutney

 

For me now's the time to start harvesting everything that needs to be brought in, especially all the things that won't survive these much colder nights and damp mornings that we've been having.  Yesterday the last of the tomatoes were picked, as you can see they are all green, there's not much chance of any ripening going on now so I thought I would make some Green Tomato Chutney.

 

I was lazy and didn't even look out my recipe for Green Tomato Chutney instead I found a Red Tomato Chutney recipe at the top of my folder so used that.  It can't be that different can it?  Chutney is chutney is chutney it's all basically veggies and sometimes fruits simmered long and slow with sugar and vinegar.

 

At least now all my tomatoes are used up and safely bottled for future use.  The kitchen smelled wonderful, it was strange I don't usually like the smell of vinegar but the mix of garlic and ginger seemed to make it a heady, warming smell.

 

Now they are all safely labelled so I don't forget exactly what's in there or the date I made them.  Simple food for our simple lifestyle, and the first preserves for my new storecupboard, once I've washed out the cupboards that is :-)

 

Now I am going to go and pick all the Sweetcorn which will simply be popped in the freezer, so no nice cooking aromas in the kitchen today.

 

I've put the recipe I used one the Recipes I Use Regularly page at the top of the Blog.

 

 Sue xx

 

 

 

Simple September - Top Tips #12

 

Play with your food!!

 

This is one of the best bits of advice I can give you.  If you are feeding yourself and your family on a budget do not be afraid to play with ingredients and make things up as you go along.  Looking at the recipe I did above, to be 'real Green Tomato Chutney' it should have had different spices, white onions and have turned out looking a little greener.  But I know the ingredients that went into it and they are all things that we like so the finished food will be something we will be happy to eat.

 

If you have something you want to use up put the name of it into your Search bar and see what recipes come up, and then experiment, if you don't have some of the ingredients listed  use what you do have or miss some things out.  I also use 'Eat Your Books'  (at the top of my sidebar) which gives me instant access to all the recipes in all the cookbooks that I own to save me from flicking through too many books and losing heart.   

 

If you make any item out of foods that you like to eat it will be fine.  Be braver than usual and try things out.  Make it fun and if the kids are usually unsure of new things give it a wacky name and arrange it on the plate in a fun way.  My chutney for example could be 'Mum's Slimeball Tomato Relish'.

 

My kids had some strange names for the foods they ate, their favourite meal was actually 'Trees and Pillows' .....  Can you guess that one then ?   :-)