Curried Tomato Chutney

Weather, weather, weather. This year that is all I can think of.  We got our spring and summer in January and February which meant that we had great spring crops. Peas and more peas.  Which was wonderful. Unfortunately summer never really got off the ground so all of the wonderful summer crops have been spotty to say the least.  Which has lead to some major creativity.  What to do with half ripe tomatoes,unripe grapes and green chilies? Today's post is about green, half ripe and a just few ripe tomatoes. 

I have made green tomato relish in the past (and grew up on it).  So I know the wonders of green tomatoes.  However with all of these half ripe tomatoes I wanted to try something different.  So the idea of a tomato chutney happened and to spice things up a bit I decided to go with a red curry as the flavoring. 

In this recipe I call red curry.  You can make your own or you can use a curry paste that doesn't have shrimp or other flavorings in it.  The only pre-made paste that I know of that qualifies as that is Mae Ploy. Other than that this is a fairly simple recipe.

Curried Tomato Chutney

3 lbs tomatoes, mixture of green through ripe

2 Onions, diced

2 T red curry paste

1 c coconut (unsweetened) 

2 c cider vinegar

1 c water

1 T salt

2 T sugar

Dice the tomatoes, if using ripe tomatoes you will want to skin them as well.  Place the coconut in your pot and bring to medium heat.  When the coconut just begins to toast mix in the curry paste.  When the curry is aromatic add the onions.  Saute until the onions are translucent.  Add your tomatoes and remaining ingredients.  Cooking over low heat until thickened.  Place in half pint jars.  Process for 25 mins.  Enjoy.

Hibiscus Peaches

These lovely peaches are a nice combination of sweet and sour.  These are as simple to make as any peach in syrup.  I am trying to decide what I am going to use them for first a peach blini or pancakes.  Maybe both, brunch anyone.

5 lbs peaches

6 c water

1 c sugar or honey

3 T hibiscus 

2 lemons, juiced

Place the sugar, hibiscus, lemon juice and water in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer.  Boil for at least 15 mins or until you have a thin syrup.  Strain the Hibiscus syrup.  Skin the peaches and slice.  Add the peaches and boil for 5 mins.  Remove the peaches from the syrup and place in your jars.  Cover with the syrup.  Process for 20 mins for pints and 25 mins for quarts.

Garlic Plum Sauce

Here in the northwest we are not having alot of luck with warm weather fruits and vegetables this year.  So I had to be very picky about what I have been making.  Needless to say I am very glad that I tried making this.  It is great with stir-fry and I am sure that I will come up with more uses as winter sets in.

 

2 1/2 lbs. plums

1 C water

2 inches of ginger, chopped

8 garlic cloves, chopped

4 T of honey

2/3 c apple cider vinegar

2 t salt

1 t green peppercorns

Wash and pit your plums.  Place in a large pot with 1 cup of water. Simmer until the plums begin to release liquid.  Add chopped garlic and ginger.  Increase heat until your sauce is at a low boil (a boil that can be stirred down).

Add your spices, honey and vinegar.  Continue to cook down until thickened.  When the desired thickness is achieved blend. Place in half-pint jars and process for 10 mins. Yield ~4 pints.

Enjoy

Tunisan Pickled Carrots

This recipe was inspired by a New York Times recipe.  Their recipe is for a frittata.  I had some carrots and decided to take the base ingredients and make up some pickled carrots.  The carrots by themselves are great and I can see making the actual frittata from them later.

Tunisan Pickled Carrots

2 bunches of carrots, sliced

3 hot chiles, sliced

4 onion tops, sliced (see note)

1 T Caraway seeds

1 t Cumin seeds

1 t Coriander seeds

4 C cider vinegar

2 C water

3 T canning salt

Place vinegar, water and salt in a non-reactive pot and bring to a simmer.  In a small skillet dry roast the spices until fragrant and popping.  Add to the vinegar mixture.  Place the carrots, chiles, and onion tops in alternating layers in your jars.  Cover with vinegar mixture and process for 20 mins in pint jars.  

Enjoy

Note: 

Onion tops are the onion equivalent of scapes.  The stem with a blossom at the top. In this case I only used the stem part and kept the blossom for another project.  If you don't have access to any tops use sliced onions.  

September Community Kitchen - Lunches

For September we will be focusing on Lunches. This is a good time of the year to start a new habit and taking your lunch is a great habit to develop.

The menu that we will be making is going to be alot of fun.  I will also be including a handout of other lunches ideas to help keep you inspired.

We will be making a strata, a spicy greens soup, baked summer squash with kale, onion and an egg,  a white bean with herbs spread.


Please join us on September 21st at the Ballard Community Center from 6pm to 9pm.  As always bring containers for taking home your part of the foods (4-5 good sized containers).



To sign up you can call the community center and register for class 60205 or you can sign up online here.

Vacation

I will be posting late this week. Just got back from vacation and have to say I didn't really find anything worth working with.  I am planning a garlic plum sauce, a curried tomato chutney, and hoping to find some figs so I can make some preserved in a rum vanilla syrup.