Tomato Relish is one of those ‘go to’ recipes when you have too many tomatoes. It could almost be called a kiwi staple as you will probably find a jar in most kiwi homes, homemade or otherwise. So every year I whip up a batch from the good old Edmonds Cookbook. Except I don’t exactly stick to the recipe…
The problem is I am impatient and the tomato relish recipe calls for the tomatoes and onion to be sprinkled with salt and left overnight. I haven’t got time for that. But the recipe at the top of the page is for tomato chutney and it doesn’t need to be left overnight so I kind of mix the instructions together. The chutney has apple and raisins in it, but my apples aren’t ready and I don’t really like cooked raisins as they swell up and roll around on your tongue in a disturbing way. And I really do like the flavour of the tomato relish. I kind of feel it is ok to do this as the sugar, salt and vinegar quantities are very similar so the integrity of the preserve isn’t compromised. Besides I’ve done it before and we have only just opened the last one from last year and it was perfectly fine.
So I grabbed the tomatoes from the last couple of days harvest and easily had the 2kg required, with some left over for salads and sandwiches until I get out there again tomorrow and harvest more. Then I grabbed some onion from the shed. The chutney said 6 onions but the relish said 4 so I split the difference and used 5. The relish recipe also said to quarter the onions and tomatoes, but the chutney ones were chopped. I figure by the end it would all be a bit of a mush, so I helped it along with my food processor.
The relish also needed three chillies. I didn’t want it too hot, but enough heat to know there are chillies in there, so I grabbed a banana chilli because it is mild would be nice balance to the spicy jalapeno. Then to mix it up I added a Lombardy. I’m not sure how hot it was because I wasn’t game enough to try it and Hubby the Un-Gardener wasn’t around. He is normally a trusting soul who will taste whatever I offer him. Poor thing. I have burnt his tongue on more than one occasion, but every time I ask him to try something, he willingly pops it in his mouth. He never learns. The whizzed up chillies did offer a bit of a sting to the eyes as I transferred them to the pot.
Then I added 2 tablespoons of salt and 2 cups of sugar. Both recipes called for brown sugar, but I didn’t have any so I used normal white sugar. I figure sugar is sugar, so I poured in 2 cups. And 2 cups of malt vinegar. Then I brought it all to the boil, then turned it down and left it to simmer for a couple of hours until it was thick and relish looking.
The magic comes next – the bit that makes the relish delish! With quarter of a cup of malt vinegar, I made a paste with a tablespoon each of dry mustard, and curry powder and 2 tablespoons of plain flour. This was added to the relish and boiled for 5 minutes and then popped into to sterile jars.
Easy. I like easy in the kitchen.
Come again soon – The sweetcorn needs harvesting. We had some for dinner and it was yummo!
Sarah the Gardener : o )
I can smell that cooking from here! Those onions are awesome.
Hi Dan it is so good! I love it. I am also quite proud of my onions!
Cheers Sarah : o )
Do you call salsa relish down there? This looks like our salsas. Either way this looks amazing.
HI Virginia. Plumdirt asked the same thing, so please check out my reply there, but it is different from salsa. It is probably a bit rich to use as a dip, but goes really well on hotdogs. Having said that, if you mix it with cream cheese it becomes a lovely dip. I hope this clears things up.
Cheers Sarah : o )
I’m curious as well if this is salsa or something else. How do you eat/serve it?
Hi. It’s not like a salsa at all, but more something to go with cold meat, cheese and crackers, in sandwiches or my favourite way is to spread butter on hot toast and then add the relish! I guess it more like a tomato sauce replacement – but so much more. I hope this clears things up. Cheers Sarah : o )
Hey Sarah … I got a handful of toms this year and hauled out another plant yesterday – blight! Oh thank you Auckland. 🙂 Love the way you have your alliums hanging from the ceiling – do you thread the string through the stem? Your relish sounds yummy – now if I had some tomatoes !!!!
Oh No Julie. I’ll have to race out and have a closer look at mine. The weather last week won’t have helped. We needed the rain – at the same time, it wasn’t always helpful!
With the onions I hung a double length of string and then kind of wove the onion ends into both strands. Much easier than pfaffing about plaiting. Cheers Sarah : o )
Your chutney looks amazing and yes love the onions! I need to do that. 😀
Thanks. It is delicious. Cheers Sarah : o )
Haha – you sound like my mum cooking! She is always changing things in recipes because she doesn’t have the ingredients or can’t be bothered taking the time to do it the proper way – and then wonders why her recipes don’t always turn out as expected! Your relish looks amazing though 🙂 Tomato relish goes beautifully with any recipe requiring tomato paste, and it’s scrumptious as a pizza sauce as well.
Hi Trudy. This is probably why I’m not so good at baking. Meal times are interesting too, because if I make something particularly yummy I have to tell the family to enjoy it as they will never get it again, because I don’t know what I did! Cheers Sarah : o )
That curry powder in the Edmonds recipe really gives the good flavour. It is the recipe I have been using too. Tomatoes of varying sizes and stages of ripening all over my kitchen sills and bench at the moment with lots more to come.
I bottled some golden queen peaches again today using the overflow method as per good old Alison Holst.
Hi Lindy. We call the Edmonds cookbook our “Aunty Edmonds” because it is our go to book and is quite battered. I also have a few of Alison Holst’s books. My peaches aren’t quite ready yet and I’m hoping they will hold out until I get back from America. Cheers Sarah : o )