When I was raising a family the months of August on into September were always a busy ones for me. It was spent picking and harvesting vegetables and fruits, prepping them for the freezer or canning jams, jellies and pickles. I haven't done a lot of that since moving here to the UK. First of all there are only two of us to feed now, and secondly I was lacking in confidence as the same materials I used to can and preserve were not available to me here. I have done the odd small batch of jam and preserves. This year however I decided to make Green Tomato Chow.
I used my ex MIL's recipe and cut it in half, because again . . . there are only two of us, but this chow is something I had not tasted in over 20 years and was something I was missing. It truly is the best Green Tomato Chow I have ever tasted.
A part of the impetus for me to make this was discovering I could buy green chutney tomatoes from The Tomato Stall. I thought about it for a few weeks and then thought about how much I missed this fabulous pickle and decided what the heck, I'm going to go for it!
Its really not that hard to make. A bit time consuming, but then again all the best things in life are. You will need to slice a quantity of green tomatoes and onions and leave them to soak in a mixture of salted water over night.
The next day you drain them well and then add them to a large saucepan along with more water and some vinegar . . . and some pickling spice.
I made a tiny muslin bag to put the pickling spice in. You crush it with a rolling pin and add it to he pot.
I added a along thread so that I could tie it to the handle of the saucepan (I used a large stock pot) making it easier to fish out when done. You cook it for a while, add whie and brown sugars, cook it for a while longer and then you add a paste of cornflour, dry mustard powder and turmeric, and a chopped red pepper and cook it over a low heat for several hours until it gets nice and thick. Your house will smell amazing while it is cooking. AMAZING!
The jars I used for this were Weck Jars, the 580ml size, that came with rubber seals, glass lids and metal clips to use while processing. I was a bit unsure about how that would work as I had never used these kinds of jars before.
But it worked very well. Just research canning with Weck Jars on YouTube and you will come up with tutorials. I processed my jars, clips on, in a water bath for 45 minutes. I did some on top of the stove in simmering water and the rest in my pressure/instant pot and as you can see I got a perfect seal.
I feel totally confident now that this pickle is sealed properly and will keep safely without refrigeration.
You will of course need to refrigerate it after opening.
A half recipe gave me about 5 1/2 pints. I may end up having to give some of it away as I am not sure we will use it all, but we are surely going to enjoy it while it lasts!
I always liked my MIL's Green Tomato Chow better than my mothers. Elizabeth's was sweeter and thicker.
More like a relish with a nice sweet and sour mild mustard flavour . . .
Elizabeth is in her 90's now. I have not seen her for many years and she is living in a Senior's complex in Nova Scotia. It has been many years since she has done any cooking or preserving. I had intitially misplaced my recipe for this, but I emailed her a number of years back and she quite happily shared the recipe with me again Of all my ex in-laws, I miss her and my SIL Micheline and her husband the most. That is the sad part of divorce . . . losing family.
Green Tomato Chow
Yield: 12 pints
prep time: 25 hourcook time: 3 hourtotal time: 28 H
This is my ex mil's recipe. I have been making it for many years. Its the best green tomato chow. Yield is a guestimate. Prepare yourself to fall in love.
Ingredients:
- 9 pounds of green tomatoes (approximately 4 kg.)
- 6 pounds onions (2 1/2 kg)
- 1 cup salt (240g)
- 4 cups water (946ml)
- 4 cups white vinegar (946ml)
- 2 additional cups water (480ml)
- 1/2 cup pickling spices (70g)
- 2 1/2 pounds white sugar (1.2 kg)
- 2 1/2 pounds soft light brown sugar (1.1 kg)
- 1/2 cup cornstarch (75g)
- 2 tsp dry mustard powder
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 red bell pepper, washed, trimmed and chopped finely
Instructions:
- Wash and slice your tomatoes into half moons. Peel your onions and also slice into half moons. Place both into a large bowl or nonreactive saucepan. Add the first quantity of water and the salt. Give it a good stir to mix. Cover with a tea towel and leave to soak overnight.
- Drain well in the morning.
- Put the pickling spice into a small cloth bag and tie shut. Crush lightly with a rolling pin.
- Put the drained vegetables into a large saucepan. Add the second amount of water and the vinegar. Put the cloth bag of spices into the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and allow to simmer for half an hour.
- Add both sugars and simmer for another half hour.
- Stir together the cornstarch, dry mustard powder and turmeric. Add a little bit of the simmering liquid and make a paste. Stir this back into the vegetables. Add the chopped pepper.
- Cook over low heat for 1 to 2 hours, until thick.
- Spoon into sterilized jars and seal according to manufacturers instructions.
If you only can one thing this season, you can't do wrong by making this Green Tomato Chow. In my opinion, it is quite simply the best.
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Fruit and Nut Muffins. Oh boy, are these fabulous muffins. Moist and delicious and filled with not one, not two, but three dried fruits. Chopped dates, raisins and chopped prunes!
Believe it or not, there is NO refined sugars in this recipe. In fact there is no sugar at all. All of the sweetness relies on those lovely dried fruits, and trust me when I say that they are just sweet enough.
In fact there is only 1/2 cup of butter in the whole recipe, which breaks down to 86 calories per muffin, so over all thats not too bad. Its less than a tablespoon per muffin.
Low fat, no sugar . . . and terrifically moist and delicious. There is nothing wrong with these!
You cook the fruit in a saucepan along with a cup of water to begin with, like making a date and nut loaf. It kind of melts down a bit, at least the dates to . . . into a sweet caramel-like mass. I put the butter right into that hot mixture and it melts down into it.
Once it cools to lukewarm, you can add it to the flour. The only leavening is baking soda. It starts to work as soon as you add the fruit and eggs, so work quickly then to get the batter in the pan ready to bake.
As you can see, they rose up beautifully . . .
They are loaded in natural fibre from the dates and the raisins and the prunes . . .
The toasted walnuts add a lovely crunch. I always toast my walnuts when I am baking with them. Its very easy to do. Just pop them onto a baking sheet and toast them into a hot oven (200*C/400*F) for about 8 to 10 minutes. You will be able to smell their nuttiness. Toasted nuts just taste better in my opinion. Its not necessary to toast them, but I always do.
Don't you love my little ruffled muffin cups. I got them from the Scandanavian Pantry. They are so cute!
I just adore anything Scandanavian . . . don't you?
If I could afford it I would kit my whole house out in Scandanavian style . . .
Back to the muffins, because they are low in sugar and fat, and high in fibre, you won't mind indulging yourself in a little bit of butter spreading . . .
Its not necessary mind you . . . but awfully nice all the same. 😁😁
Fruit & Nut Muffins
Yield: 10
prep time: 15 Mcook time: 20 Mtotal time: 35 M
These muffins are incredibly moist and delicious. Serve warm, split and spread with butter for an incredible taste treat! There is no sugar in these. They are sweetened by the dried fruit, and are filled with lovely flavours.
Ingredients:
- 150g chopped dates (1 cup)
- 75g chopped prunes (1/2 cup)
- 75g raisins (1/2 cup)
- 240ml water (1 cup)
- 120g butter (1/2 cup)
- 1/4 sp salt
- 140g flour (1 cup)
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 2 large free range eggs, whisked lightly
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 60g toasted chopped walnuts (1/2 cup)
Instructions:
- Place the dates, prunes and raisins in a saucepan with the water. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and cook for about 8 minutes until soft. Remove from the heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt.
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line 10 muffin cups with paper liners.
- Sift the flour, salt and soda into a bowl. Add the beaten eggs, vanilla and date mixture and mix all together just to combine. Fold in the walnuts.
- Divide the mixture between the muffin cups.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre of one comes out clean.
- Remove to a wire rack to cool somewhat before eating. These are gorgeous served warm and spread with butter.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
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Thanks!
As I have often said and as anyone who has been reading me for a while knows, the potato is my favourite vegetable. I love them in any way, shape or form.
One of my favourite of course is chips, or fries as they are also called, and the Perfectly Seasoned Chips/Fries are one of my favourite ways to prepare them.
This recipe is a great way of enjoying chips without having to drag out the deep fryer and they turn out crisp and wonderfully favoured every time. They are little bit spicy and a whole lot of tasty!
Every now and then I will deep fry chips, but more often than not I will make them this way. I hate the smell that accompanies deep frying and I hate having my house smell like a chippie.
You will want to use a nice floury/baking/mashing type of potato for these. My mother always said you couldn't make mashed potatoes with new potatoes, and this is true.
New potatoes are not ideal for mashed or baked or chips. They are too waxy and the consistency is just not right. You want a "fluffy" type of potato.
I recommend here in the UK that you use a Maris Piper, or King Edward. In North America a Russet. These will give you the best results.
You can peel your potatoes or not as you wish. I love potatoes with the peels left on, so that's how we enjoy them. If they are really washed well (and why would you leave them dirty??) they are perfect with the skins left on.
In a baked potato, my favourite part has always been the skin. I mean . . . who doesn't enjoy crisp "Potato Skins" served with dip. Yumma Yumma!
There is a little bit of faffing with these, but not as much as if you were deep frying and I promise you, you will enjoy these every bit as much.
I have never lied to you before and I am not about to start now. Anyone who has been reading me for a while knows that I don't go in for a lot of faffing about. My goal is to have easy, yet delicious food. Sometimes it can't be helped however and there is a little bit of faff involved.
If there is any faffing you know that it will be worth it. I am basically very lazy so any faff has to be worth it in taste.
I like to cut my potatoes into finger sized chips. No more than about a third to a half an inch in diameter. Skinny fries! This size will give you the crispest chips!
You need to rinse them really well under cold running water to get rid of any excess starch. This is very important.
Once I have don this, I like to soak them for about 10 minutes in cold water while I am preheating the oven and getting together the spices I am going to use to season them with.
I make my own Old Bay Seasoning for this. (And for other things.) Its so delicious and such a simple thing to do. I actually make a lot of my own seasonings. You know what is in them and they taste amazing.
Make Your Own Old Bay Seasoning: Mix together 2 TBS
Powdered Bay leaf (do this in a spice or coffee grinder) 2 TBS celery
salt, 1 TBS dry mustard powder, 2 tsp ground black pepper, 2 tsp ground
ginger, 1 tsp sweet paprika, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp white pepper, 1
tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground allspice, 1/4 tsp
cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp ground mace, 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, 1/4 tsp
ground cinnamon. Mix together well and store in an airtight container
out of the light for up to 6 months.
I use a light olive oil. Not extra virgin olive oil. I save that for salads. Light olive oil works very well.
It is a waste of a good extra virgin olive oil to use it in cooking things like this. I still use a good name brand, its just not from the first press. You could also use regular canola oil.
As you can see they turn out lovely and crisp. I think these are pretty amazing for not having been fried.
Crisp is very hard to create without frying but it is achievable. You do want to eat them as soon as possible after cooking however and if you layer them up like in this bowl the heat from the chips will start to soften them, so serving them quickly is key.
These are beautifully flavoured as well. I think this is the perfect mix of seasonings.
When your chips are seasoned well, you don't need anything else. Not ketchup, not mayonnaise, not fry sauce, nothing. Just the chips are enough.
We really love to have chips with our steaks when we do have a steak. (We don't eat red meat very often and when we do I will either have a baked potato or chips.)
My friend Pat had sent me over some Haupy's Beaver Rub/Seasoning. Oh my but it is sooooo good. A little taste of home. Today I used this on our steaks.
I also made us a simple Caesar Salad to enjoy with the steak and chips. Caesar Salad is my favourite salad. I have a real weakness for Caesar Salad. Like lemon and chocolate, it is impossible for me to resist.
And so many restaurants get it so wrong! What's up with that! Trust me when I say salad is one of the things restaurants do REALLY badly here in the UK. I have even been served salad with mould growing on the tomatoes. Who lets somethin glike that leave their kitchen!
This was the best meal, as good as any you would get in a restaurant and not a lot of trouble to put together. Making the chips was the most labour intensive part of the meal.
But I can promise you they are well worth the effort. WELL worth the effort. They were just yum, yum, yummy!!
These chips are a lot better for you than deep fried chips and your house doesn't smell like a fat fryer when you are done. That's one thing I really hate about frying . . . I hate my house smelling like a chippy!
You really don't get much better than this! I hope you will give them a
go and that you enjoy them. If you want your chips even crisper then by
all means bake them for a bit longer. It all depends on how hot your
oven runs! Enjoy!
Perfectly Seasoned Chips
Yield: 4
prep time: 20 Mcook time: 35 Mtotal time: 55 M
These are crisp and perfectly seasoned. There is no frying involved as they are baked in the oven. You will need a floury type of potato for these, something like a Russett, Maris Piper, or King Edward would do, or a good all rounder. New Potatoes or waxy potatoes are not suitable.
Ingredients:
- 4 large baking type of potatoes (about 3 pounds)
- 3 TBS light olive oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp Old Bay Seasoning (see note)
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions:
- Wash your potatoes and cut them into chips. I don't bother to peel them as we quite like the skins. Rinse them under cold running water until the water runs clear to remove any excess starch, then leave them covered in a bowl of cold water for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven and make the seasonings.
- Preheat the oven to 225*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Line two large baking sheets with baking paper.
- Drain the potatoes and dry them well with a clean kitchen towel. Put them into a bowl and toss them together with the olive oil and the seasonings to coat.
- Spread the potato slices out onto the baking sheets, leaving plenty of space around each for the air to circulate. Place one sheet pan on the top rack and the other on the bottom rack and bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from the oven and flip them over. Return to the oven reversing the top to bottom and bottom to top. Bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes until they are perfectly crisp.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as required. Serve immediately.
notes:
Make Your Own Old Bay Seasoning: Mix together 2 TBS Powdered Bay leaf (do this in a spice or coffee grinder) 2 TBS celery salt, 1 TBS dry mustard powder, 2 tsp ground black pepper, 2 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp sweet paprika, 1 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp white pepper, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground allspice, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp ground mace, 1/2 tsp ground cardamom, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon. Mix together well and store in an airtight container out of the light for up to 6 months.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The
English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you
may report it to me at: theenglishkitchen@mail.com
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