Thursday, April 4, 2013

Still madly harvesting and preserving

Well the harvest continues. Goodness I have to be really honest and say I feel pretty over the whole harvesting and preserving thing.

I absolutely love providing for our family from our own garden but boy harvest time is full on. Over the last weeks I have been thinking a lot of our forebears and people on the poverty line. How the harvest is so so important and without storing correctly and keeping as much as humanely possible, they would starve. Quite sobering really. I am so fortunate that I have a choice and do it because I want to (and I cannot bear waste).

So we are onto the Pear tree now. Goodness they take a while to do with all that peeling etc.

I have also been given tomatoes and decided to try to adapt the roast blackboy peach recipe (originally the roast Feijoa from my sister in laws book) into a roast tomato chutney recipe.

So here goes. ( I don't think I will ever make a chutney in a pot again)





Roast tomato chutney 
2.25kg ripe tomatoes chopped into 2cm chunks
750g onions finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 Tablespoon ground corriander
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or use ground)
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons each - whole yellow and black mustard seed (optional)
3 Tablespoon salt
400 ml vinegar
500g sugar

Put all into a roasting tray and mix well. Roast for 2-3 hours at 180oC (it took me 2.5) on fan-bake (the fan bake assists the speed of cooking and evaporation of all the liquid). Stir once or twice if you remember. It is ready when it is looking thick and there is still a little bit of liquid in the bottom of the pan when you stir. ( it should have reduced in size by about half).

Spoon into hot sterilised jars ( I had assorted sizes and it filled 7 jars)

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5 comments:

  1. This chutney sounds so good, I gave my friend Narf77 a link to it. Wish I had a garden so I could look forward to the harvest. And yes, I do remember putting up dozens of jars in the August heat! Worth it in the winters, though.
    ~ Linne

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    Replies
    1. Maybe if your friend makes it she might give you a jar!!!

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  2. You are a machine! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  3. I bet those pears were a lot of work,but they look fantastic!! Tomato chutney sounds really good:)

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  4. It is so cold here in TN! We are no where near harvest time! Your pears look delicious and your chutney sounds amazing! I know that it is such hard work, but you will be so glad to pull such wonderful treasures from your pantry! Life to the full! Melissa @ DaisyMaeBelle

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