Tomato Relish

Sweet yet Spicy

A superb home-made relish to use as as an accompaniment with cold meat and salad or on sandwiches. Best made from home grown tomatoes to really bring out the tomato flavour.

Ingredients

4 kg ripe tomatoes
1½ kg onions
½ kg apples, peeled and cored
½ kg sweet peppers (red and yellow look best) diced
A couple of fiery hot chillies, or the contents of a jar of pickled chillies
1 kg sugar
3 level tablespoons hot curry powder
4½ level tablespoons mustard powder
¾ teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1.7 L white vinegar
1 tablespoon cornflour

Method

1. Peel and dice tomatoes, onions, peppers and apples.
2. Place in a large pot and cover with vinegar.
3. Add the sugar and bring the mixture to the boil. Boil rapidly for five minutes.
4. Combine all the spices and stir into the relish mixture.
5. Boil gently for one hour, removing scum progressively and stirring frequently.
6. To thicken the relish, add the corn flour to a little water and mix to a smooth paste.
7. Add a little of the hot liquid from the relish mixture until the paste is the consistency of thin cream.
8. Add the paste to the relish mixture and stir continuously for around 5 minutes until it thickens.
9. Bottle into hot, sterilised jars and seal when cold. Makes approximately 12 medium sized jars.

Notes

Tomatoes are much easier to peel if you drop them into boiling water for a minute or two. If relish mixture appears to be too watery during cooking reduce it down by leaving the lid off the pot. This relish will keep for up to 12 months in a cool cupboard.

Scale down the ingredients to make a smaller batch. Works best with fresh tomatoes; may work with tinned tomatoes but haven't tried it, do let me know how it works out if you do try.