Spicy Red Tomato, Pepper and Squash Chutney

The last of the tomato and pepper plants in the greenhouse are fading now that the days are getting shorter. So we've picked what was left, ripe or no.

Time for another batch of chutney.

I've been looking at recipes for indian tomato pickles, and so whilst this recipe is based on the Red Tomato Chutney from Home Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables, I have completely changed the spices used, and substituted peppers and squash for some of the tomatoes.

• 2.5lbs Peppers
• 1.5lb Butternut or similar Squash
• 1.5lbs Green Tomatoes
• 6.5lb Red Tomatoes
• 1lb Onions
• 1 bulb Garlic
• 6-8 Chillies - or add 2tsp dried chilli powder to the spice mix.
• Ground Spices to taste: Cinnamon, Cloves, Mace, Black Pepper, Cumin, Black Cardamon, Fenugreek, Smoked Paprika. - About 1-2 heaped teaspoons of each.
• Whole spices: Mustard Seeds and Kalonji. - About 1/2 cup kalonji, and 2 tbp mustard seeds.
• 1.5oz Salt
• 1pt Vinegar
• 1.5lbs Sugar

Put the peppers and squash into a hot oven to roast.
Chop the green tomatoes coarsely and put into a maslin pan.
Skin and chop the red tomatoes coarsely, and add to the pan.
Peel and coarsely chop the garlic and chillies and add to the pan.
Peel and chop the onions and add to the pan.
Turn on the heat and let the pan of tomatoes and onions etc stew over a gentle heat.
When the peppers and squash have roasted, put the peppers into a bag to steam in their own juices as they cool.
Peel the squash, cut open and scoop out the seeds. Dice its flesh and add to the pan of tomatoes.
When the peppers have cooled, skin and deseed them, and dice their flesh. Add to the pan too.
Turn up the heat under the pan a little and give it a good stir.
Let the tomato mixture reduce down gradually, with the occasional stir, until it forms a thick paste.
Add the spices, salt and half the vinegar and stir well into the tomato mixture.
Continue to cook gently until the mixture reduces down to a paste again.
Now add the rest of the vinegar and the sugar.
Cook gently until the sugar has dissolved, then boil until the chutney reaches the desired thickness.
Pack into warm jars and seal as usual.
Yield should be around 8 lb jars.


Update:

I got a significant overyield on this, but it was getting impossible to boil down further without either coating the entire kitchen with chutney, or burning it to the pan bottom. The vegetable swap probably affected the % water, so it may be okay. If not, I'll up the vinegar/sugar/salt a bit next time. 

The spice flavour came out just what I was looking for though!


Update 2:

Despite the overyield, the chutney kept. It didn't develop the heat I was looking for though, so this year I am adding dried hot chillies in the spice mixture to try and up the heat.