Tomato Chutney Sauce Recipe

I have always been a fan of Whitlocks tomato chutney sauce, much preferring it to plain tomato sauce, so I was delighted to find a recipe that has all the wonderful layers of different flavours to it along with texture and a kick of chilli. You can experiment with different spices to suit your tastes.

I had plenty of tomatoes in the freezer but you can replace or supplement the fresh or frozen tomatoes with tinned tomatoes.

2½ kg tomatoes, peeled* and diced (or equivalent tinned tomatoes, diced, including juice)
100g ginger, peeled & chopped finely (can use processed to save time)
100g garlic, peeled & crushed (can use processed to save time)
2 tsp chilli powder or to taste
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
Juice of 5 limes, preferably (or 4 lemons)
2 Tbsp salt
3 cups malt vinegar
1 kg sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1½ tsp ground cloves
300g dates, chopped small

*To peel the fresh or frozen tomatoes, cut a small cross into the skins and plunge them into boiling water for a minute or so until the skins split. Remove from the water and peel off the skins. Then chop into pieces.

Place all the ingredients in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan and combine thoroughly.

Simmer uncovered, stirring regularly, until reduced almost by half and thickened to the consistency you want. This should take about 1 to 1.5 hours.

Transfer to hot, sterilised bottles and seal. Mine made about 11 x 250ml bottles but it will depend how thick you make it.