Tomato Relish

It's finally here.  The much awaited,  much requested tomato relish recipe that I make. Tomatoes will be ripening soon and / or coming on sale in the fruit and veg shops.  This recipe is fairly simple to make.  Just make sure you have all the ingredients on hand before you start.  You'll also need lots of glass jars with metal lids ready to fill.

Tomato relish is great to have with Krispy Fried Chicken drumsticks     ( or any chicken for that matter ),  ham or silverside.  It's also wonderful in a cheese and meat sandwich.

3 kilos of tomatoes - diced
8 medium onions - peeled and diced
4 tablespoons of salt
4 1/2 cups of malt vinegar
4 green chillies - de-seeded and very finely chopped
4 cups of brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons of curry powder
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons of plain flour
1/2 cup of water

Place the tomatoes and onions into a large plastic or glass bowl

Sprinkle with the salt,  mix,  cover with cling wrap and leave for 12 hours ( overnight )

Drain off any excess liquid

Place the tomatoes and onions into a very large saucepan ( or two ) and add the sugar,  vinegar and chillies.

Gently boil for 1 1/2 -2 hours stirring occasionally until the liquid has reduced a little.

Mix the flour,  water,  Dijon mustard and curry powder into a smooth paste in a measuring jug or glass bowl.

Very slowly add the paste to the tomatoes while stirring constantly.

Gently boil for another 10 - 15 minutes.

Spoon or pour into sterilised glass jars and seal immediately.

The relish will keep for up to one year in a cool dark place.

Refrigerate after opening and consume within a few weeks.


NOTES -

*  I once made this recipe without doing the overnight draining process ( I forgot ).  So I added the tomatoes,  onions and 1 tablespoon of salt to a large saucepan then continued with the recipe as per usual.  It still worked out just fine.

*  Feel free to add more chillies if you like it hot.  I don't like chillies at all but with four in the recipe,  you don't really notice them.

*  Make your own brown sugar to save some money.  The recipe is in the recipe section under mixes.

*  Malt vinegar is a type of brown vinegar.  The label on the container must say malt.

*  Sterilise the jars in an oven on about 150 degrees Celcius for approx, 30 minutes.

*  The original recipe was given to me from a book.   I've adjusted it to suit my family's tastes.  Feel free to change it to suit your own tastes.

*  This recipe is a double batch of the original version.  I doubled it to save time and to fill more jars.

*  From memory,  you need at least 10 - 15 small / medium sized jam / relish/ pickle jars.

*  Remember,  when bottling relish,  the lids will retain some of the smell after washing.  I don't use these jars for anything other than relish..

*  This relish makes a wonderful present when you add a hat ( material circle ) and gift tag.  It's also great to give with homemade pita chips.