Green Tomato Chutney is one of those things that you almost hope you don't have to make (apart from that it's delicious). It would be so much nicer to eat all the tomatoes in the red and juicy state that they should be, however the recent wet summers mean that there are often green tomatoes left at the end of the season. This is an ideal way to use them up.
I've never seen green tomatoes for sale anywhere, although I wouldn't be surprised if you could get them at some larger farmers markets. The ones I used were the last stragglers from the greenhouse, there were a few orange and red ones in there as well.

Nigel Slater has written a nice article about green tomatoes, which includes another recipe.

This recipe is taken from the "Good Housekeeping" Cookery Book, granny recommended it as the best, and she should know.

See here for the Green Tomato Chutney Recipe in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£0.40 300g cooking apples
£0.16 1 large onion
£0.00 900g  green tomatoes
£0.16 125g sultanas
£0.02 1 1/2 tsp salt
£0.20 125g demerara sugar
£0.35 270ml malt vinegar
£0.05 1 tsp mustard powder
£0.01 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
£0.50 50g fresh ginger
£1.85 Total
£2.05 per kg of chutney  (an eighth of the cost of Rick Stein's Green Tomato Chutney)

The tomatoes are thinly sliced and put in the preserving pan.

Chopped apples, onions, sultanas, sugar and dry spices went in next, I used mustard seeds as I had run out of powder. I only roughly chop the apples, as they will be reduced to a pulp, the onions are chopped a bit finer.

I added 50g of fresh ginger in a muslin bag as well, nothing like a bit of improvisation when chutney making, although interestingly it was the most expensive ingredient and pushed the overall cost up quite a bit. I smash it about a bit with a rolling pin before putting it in the bag, this helps release more of the flavour.

I used the spicy pickling vinegar I'd recently made for pickling onions, this should add some extra depth to the finished chutney.

All the ingredients in the pan and ready to bring to the boil.

After 55 minutes of simmering the bottom of the pan stayed visible after drawing a spoon across it, a sure sign that the chutney has reached the correct consistency.
Remove the muslin bag at this stage.

The chutney was potted into steralised jars and should be ready in a few months.

Recipe Timings

30 mins chopping etc.
55 mins simmering
15 mins potting

These pickled onions should provide a bit of warmth when they are ready in the new year, the spicy pickling vinegar is added to by tucking a few chillies in the jars.
I used up the remainder of a 5 kg bag of onions I recently bought for the bargain price of £3.75, much more cost effective than buying small bags from the supermarket.
The first half of the bag had gone in making sweet pickled onions.

This hot and spicy recipe used spicy pickling vinegar.

Recipe Costs

£1.87 2.5kg pickling onions
£0.19 500g salt
£0.75 1 litre malt vinegar
£0.10 1 tsp coriander seeds
£0.03 1 tsp mustard seeds
£0.20 4 tsp cumin seeds
£0.26 5 cardamons £0.19 5 cloves
£0.10 10 g fresh ginger
£0.03 1 tsp garam marsala (whole, not ground)
£0.24 4 fresh chillis
£3.86 Total
£1.54 per kg of onions (about quarter the cost of traditional pickled onions (not budget ones) from tesco)

This mix of spices would be great even without the extra chillies, I choose a good selection of seeds making sure there were about 15g - 30g to each litre of vinegar. These were then added to the vinegar and brought to the boil, then left to stand overnight. You could use a Spice Bag , but I just make sure I strain the vinegar carefully.

The onions are topped, tailed and peeled, then mixed with the salt and left to stand overnight as well.

The next day they are rinsed, and almost look good enough to eat already. The salt has removed a large amount of water which should make them nice and crunchy.

The onions are packed into steralised jars, I find if you push them down you can get them to fit nice and tight and the top layer tucks pleasingly under the shoulder of the jar.
I decided to put two half chillies in each jar, time will tell if this is being overly keen.

The end result looks good and will be left to mature for several months in a cool dark cupboard.

Recipe Timings

30 mins peeling and salting
10 mins preparing vinegar
overnight salting and cooling
15 mins potting

Taste Test

Very spicy, not for the faint hearted.
I would probally halve the amount of chillis inthe jar next time as I could only manage to eat these onions chopped up in a sandwich.

After the success (I hope) of making pickled onions last week, I've been keen to make some more, so hopefully we've got enough to last us the whole of next year. I picked up a 5kg sack of pickling onions from the local fruit and veg shop, along with 5 litres of malt vinegar, the plan being to try out some different mixes of spices and flavours.

This recipe makes  sweet pickled onion which may suit those who don't like too much of the sharp taste of vinegar.

It uses the recipe for sweet pickling vinegar, of which I made 2.5 litres, as I only used 1 litre I have scaled the costs and spices below down accordingly. You could get away with only making a litre and topping up some of the jars with malt vinegar (or any other sort - balsamic might be nice).

Recipe Costs

£1.87 2.5kg pickling onions
£0.19 500g salt
£0.17 180g granulated sugar
£0.75 1 litre malt vinegar
£0.04 1 blade of mace
£0.05 15 cloves
£0.05  15 allspice berries
£0.17 1 cinnamon stick
£0.11 2 heads star anise
£0.04 1 tsp peppercorns
£0.05 5 g fresh ginger
£3.49 Total
£1.39 per kg of onions (about quarter the cost of traditional pickled onions (not budget ones) from tesco)

Making pickled onions takes a bit of time, and needs to be done over a few days, that said each step is not that time consuming, I did this batch over two evening while cooking the tea. The first step is to make the spiced vinegar, which means selecting a bowl full of spices (around 15g - 30g per litre of vinegar).

You can put them in a Spice Bag or just make sure you strain the vinegar carefully afterward. Add the  spices and sugar to the vinegar and bring it slowly to the boil stirring to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Then turn off the heat, cover, and let it stand at least overnight for the flavours to develop. This fills the kitchen with a wonderful spicy smell, although it is a bit vinegary.

The second step is topping and tailing and then peeling the onions. This  is the most time consuming task although you can loosen the skins  by scalding the top and tailed onions in boiling water for 20 seconds then draining. Be careful not to leave them in the water too llong as they will start to soften.

The peeled onions are then put in a bowl and mixed with the salt, this draws out some of the water (by osmosis - diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane - remember that from school?) Leave these covered overnight, giving them a stir before going to bed, it's amazing how much water this produces, and it will help make the onions crunchy and preserve better.
No photos of osmosis action, but there are some in my last post about pickled onions.

The next day rinse the onions with very cold water, to get rid of the salt, and pack them in steralised jars.
Strain the vinegar, unless you want to leave some of the spices in for decoration, I couldn't resist popping a star anise in each jar. I figured it would help me remember which jars contained the sweet onions.

Pour over the cold vinegar, it's important to cover the top onions with at least a 1 cm of vinegar as some may evaporate during storage.

The pickles should be kept in a cool dark place for a few months to allow the flavours to mature.

Recipe Timings

30 mins peeling and salting
10 mins preparing vinegar
overnight salting and cooling
15 mins potting

Taste Test

These have a very strong flavour, which I can only think comes from leaving the star anise in the jar. I'll leave it out next time..

image source wikimedia commons

1. Onion is a term used for many plants in the genus Allium, but usually refers to Allium cepa the garden onion.

2. Traces of onion remains have been found in Bronze Age settlements dating back to 5000 BC.

3. Alexander the Great fed his army onions with the belief that if they ate strong foods, they themselves would become stronger.

4. The ancient Egyptians worshiped the onion, believing that its spherical shape and concentric rings symbolized eternity

5. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest onion ever grown weighed 10 lbs 14 oz and was grown by V. Throup of Silsden, England.

6. Yellow onions make up more than 75% of the worlds production of onions.

7. A recent urban legend suggests that placing onions around your home will absorb the swine flu virus, preventing infection. This myth dates back to the 1500's.

8. Eye irritation when cutting onions can be avoided by cutting onions under running water or submerged in a basin of water.

9. A traditional Maltese remedy for sea urchin wounds is to tie half a baked onion to the afflicted area overnight.

10. Ways of preserving onions include the classic pickled onion and the more fashionable onion marmalade.

We always have a jar of pickled onions in our fridge, they're an essential part of most meals involving a sandwich. We're partial to anything from a small silverskin to a whopping spicy golf ball sized pickle.

Pickling onions have been available in the shops for several weeks now, so it's time to get the goggles out, put a piece of bread in your mouth and start peeling.

The first batch I'll make this year is a reasonably quick process, where the peeked onions are sprinkled with salt and left overnight, rather than the more traditional method of soaking in brine. Both of these processes remove some of the water from the onions, which can dilute the vinegar in the jar reducing the shelf life.

You can buy ready spiced pickling vinegar, but it's easy to make your own and you can choose how to flavour it. Which spices to use is a matter of taste and opinion, I've not gone too hot with this recipe, but most recipes call for variations on the following: coriander, mustard seed, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, bay leaves and black pepper. I've added some garam marsala (whole, not ground as this would make the vinegar cloudy), which also contains cumin seeds, black, brown, & green cardamom and star anise.

The basic recipe is taken from the River Cottage Handbook No.2: Preserves.

See here for the pickled onion recipe.

Recipe Costs

£2.00 1.5kg pickling onions
£0.28 750g salt
£0.16 175g granulated sugar
£1.28 1 litre malt vinegar
£0.09 3 tsp mustard seeds
£0.04 1 tsp peppercorns
£0.03 1 tsp garam marsala
£0.17 1 cinnamon stick
£4.05 Total
£2.89 per kg of onions (about half the cost of traditional pickled onions (not budget ones) from tesco)

The onions are top and tailed and then soaked in boiling water for 20 seconds, which helps loosen the skin.

After peeling and being laid out in a shallow dish, salt is poured over and the dish covered up for the night.

Meanwhile the spiced vinegar is prepared by mixing with the spices and bringing to boiling point, you can use a muslin bag to hold the spices, although I find straining afterward works just as well. This is then left to cool overnight.

After 12 hours the salt has removed about 100ml of water from the onions, which are rinsed and packed into steralised jars.

The cool vinegar is poured over (if a soft onion is preferred it can be reheated before pouring) and a few bay leaves tucked in. It's important to cover the top onions with at least a 1 cm of vinegar as some may evaporate during storage.

The pickles should be kept in a cool dark place for a few months to allow the flavours to mature.

Recipe Timings

20 mins peeling and salting
10 mins preparing vinegar
overnight salting and cooling
15 mins potting

Taste Test

These have turned out well, in fact I prefer them to the sweet pickled onions and hot and spicy picked onions I also made this year.
I guess, in this case, you just can't beat the classic recipe.

My sister is an expert maker of pickles and preserves, and made a large batch of red onion marmalade with balsamic vinegar for consumption with the mountains of cheese at her recent wedding.

While she couldn't quite remember the exact recipe, it was similar to this red onion marmalade recipe. I would highly recommend it as an alternative to using brown onions.

She also designed and made some lovely labels for the onion marmalade and two other chutneys served on the day, she shows how to make these labels in this blog post.

The matching jars looked great on the tables at the wedding, you can find similar jars here.

I'm a bit unsure about Onion marmalade, not the taste or concept, just the naming of it. In my mind a marmalade is a fruit preserve, made from citrus fruit. However, fashion has invented a version using onions, which I guess tends to be sweeter and more jam like than an onion chutney, so I was tempted into trying it out using some of the onions still laid out in the greenhouse.

I tried to keep the recipe simple and not go down the 'slow caramalised heritage variety red and white onion marmalade with single estate vintage balsamic vinegar' route. I did succumb to the addition of caraway seeds, as I'd never seen these used in a preserve before.

The recipe I used was adapted from the one at the chutney recipes blog.

See here for the onion marmalade recipe.

Recipe Costs

£0.89 1.2kg onions (equivalent cost, mine were free)
£0.02 3 tbsp salt
£0.79 500ml vinegar (cider or white wine)
£ 0.84 900g granulated sugar
£0.46 1 1/2 tsp cloves
£0.25 tsp caraway seeds
£3.25 Total (£2.29 without buying the onions)
£2.70 per kg of marmalade (£1.90 per kg without buying the onions - 17.5% of the cost of equivalent at confit direct)

The brown onions were chopped reasonably finely, a bit of a chore as my homegrown ones tend to bring on floods of tears, the sort where you have to leave the room and stagger around waving your hands in front of your face. These were salted for a hour, then rinsed.

Plain granulated sugar, and cider vinegar, heated gently until the sugar is dissolved. I find digital scales really useful for accurately weighing out ingredients.

Cloves are tied in a piece of muslin, the recipe suggests that rosemary can be added instead of caraway seeds, I'd be tempted to put this in the muslin as well. This is then simmered in the sugar and vinegar mixture to start the flavours infusing.

 Seeds and onions are added to the mixture, and simmered until thick.

The marmalade was put into hot, steralised jars after about three hour, in hindsight this was probably 30 minutes too long, as some setting occurred in the jars.

Recipe Timings

15 mins preparation
1 hour sitting
3 hours simmering
15 mins potting

Taste Test

Sweet,with a not too strong taste of onions, there's a slight hint of warmth from the cloves and caraway.