Green Tomato Chutney
I've been proud of myself all week. Instead of letting the summer garden rot and become a disgraceful mess, I got out there and cleaned up. I harvested the last of the cucumbers; planted some cabbage, kale, broccoli, and brussel sprouts; weeded; picked green tomatoes off blighted plants. Normally, by the time summer is over, I feel loads of shame that I haven't been a better gardener and I avert my eyes whenever I walk past my garden. Part of the all-or-nothing propensity that hasn't served me very well in life. I'd like to think I'm getting away from that.
Apparently, tomatoes on the counter in September is like Vegas for fruit flies. They go ape, hanging out, whooping it up. They've been a total menace lately. So even though I was dead tired the other night, I chopped up my tomatoes and threw them in a saucepan with a few other things and let it bubble away while I watched Oprah.
The result was delicious. With crackers and goat cheese, in a galette crust with brie and parmesan. You could also spoon it over polenta or grilled sausages or make a quesadilla with a bit of sharp cheddar.
Here's to really believing one of my favorite mantras: Good enough is good enough. Martha Stewart's gardening calendar be damned.
Green Tomato Chutney
You can deal with the tomato skins in one of two ways. You can either blanch them in boiling water for one minute to loosen the skins, or do what I do. Just cook everything, then pick through with a spoon and fork and remove the skins. Most of them will have fallen off and curled up into little cylinders during cooking. Of course you could make this chutney with ripe tomatoes, too, but part of its charm is the tartness that comes from the green ones.
2-3 lbs. tomatoes in various stages of ripeness, coarsely chopped
1 Tb. olive oil
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
2 Tb. chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tb. chopped fresh ginger
dash of red pepper flakes
salt
Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and ginger and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of ingredients, bring to a boil, then turn heat down and simmer for about 45 minutes, until mixture is thickened, tasting a few times and adding more of anything to taste. Remove from heat, let it cool, then store in the fridge. Will keep for at least a week, and will thicken up a bit more when cold.
To make a galette, spread about 1/2 c. of your chutney over galette dough. Lay about 4 oz. of sliced brie over the chutney and grate parmesan over the whole thing. Fold the dough in to form a crust, then bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, until crust is golden.
September 24, 2009
Reader Comments (20)
I just started reading your blog recently but I have to tell you that I want to make almost everything you post which is really rare for me and a food blog. Thanks for the inspiration!
chutney and cheese. bliss.
Tip for fruit flies: in a bowl (not cup, as we discovered, it can be mistaken for something drinkable) put some apple cider vinegar with a drop of liquid soap. It draws those suckers in and kills 'em. A bowl with stale red wine works too.
Ginger, nice add. And I am definitely going to try pds's fruit fly tip!
How did you know that I have a buttload of green tomatoes in the garden? Awesome! Love the galette.
pds: Thanks for the tip! I'll have to use vinegar though, since there is never STALE wine in my house. It's all in my belly!
Sarah, I'm glad to have this recipe but I'm not ready for it. They had 20 lb. boxes of ripe tomatoes at my farmers market last week for $20 and said they'd have them again this week. I'm making more of those lovely roasted tomatoes you had a few weeks ago and putting it in the freezer. Green tomato chutney is fine in a week or two with whatever is left in my garden then. BUT, not yet! Holding on to summer, ya think?
Okay, you've totally inspired me. I need to go clean up my garden too! And I have plenty of tomatoes and fresh herbs still so I need to make this recipe as well, it looks awesome!
Can't wait to do this...I too have many, many green tomatoes. We have a short growing season here in the mountains, so I know they will probably stay green.
Sounds like a great way to use up all the tomatoes I have from a friends garden. Thank you again for the inspiration.
Amen! Good enough is good enough.
I'm proud of you too.
How about a picture of your garden one of these days?
I was going to give you a tip to get rid of those fruit flies, but sounds like pds is all over it. That's *exactly* what I do (the apple cider vinegar and a little squirt of dish soap) and have done for years- and it works every time! :)
Good job cleaning out your garden!
Oh man, this looks way too amazing!! I have never tried a green tomato but I've got a few on the vine and I might just try this out. I'm a chutney fan, after all.
That tomato chutney sounds great!
Thank you so much for this recipe! Your timing is perfect. I had to make a lot of substitutions because my kitchen so poorly stocked; you can see the recipe for my http://cultivatingcheap.blogspot.com/2009/09/exact-same-except-totally-different.html" rel="nofollow">version here.
Holy mackerel, this was delicious. And I love your method for dealing w/ the skins.
Yay Sarah! I just KNEW you'd have something on here about (unripe) green tomatoes. Perfect! Just grabbed 2 loads full from rogue plants on my condo's concrete planters; saved a bunch to use for next week's retreat cuz I love using garden excess (fruits/veggies) in our retreat menus. I'll be making your Ratatouille, too (replacing eggplant w/ zucchini since I have another toddler-sized zook to use).
(Hi Em!)
Wow! So yummy. I was a little more generous with the dried red peppers because I like my chutneys with a little zing. Thanks so much for this great recipe, beautiful photos. I could wile away many hours reading your blog.
Hi Anne! So nice to have you here. I'm with you on the zing--the more the better.
Made this yesterday, using up the green tomatoes I still had on the vines as I did the fall garden cleanup. This was a truly spectacular dish, and was a huge hit at a little gathering, cut into wedges and served with Chardonnay. I'm not much of a pastry maker, but the galette crust was easy and the most flaky thing I've ever eaten -- and I omitted the sour cream as I discovered it had gotten used up. Thank you so much, I'm going to be an avid reader from now on.
Excellent work on this garden article. It makes for an interesting and easy read.