RECIPE - GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

2lbs green tomatoes, sliced
1 pint vinegar
1 lb Demerara sugar
12 oz sliced onion
3 hot red peppers
1/2 oz finely chopped fresh ginger
1/4 oz ground cloves
1/4 oz ground black pepper
4 oz whole mustard seed

Sprinkle the sliced green tomatoes with salt and leave overnight. Drain, rinse and then simmer very gently for one to one and a half hours with all the other ingredients. Allow to cool and then bottle and seal.

Notes

The chilli peppers can either be left whole and then discarded or chopped and left in before bottling, or the burning seeds can be removed before you make the chutney... (I chop it before putting it in and then leave it in - wear rubber gloves!)

The mustard seed should be the pale yellow round seeds, not fine black ones.

You don't have to seal hermetically: this stuff will keep for years in a simple screw-top jam-jar. I don't sterilize either. I just wash the jars thoroughly and dry them in the oven.