Spicy Tomato Relish - By Long Track Pantry

I finally got to visit Long Track Pantry when we took our road trip to Canberra last month.  I've been buying online from them for years, so it was great to finally get there.  There is almost nothing in the tiny, wee town of Jugiong except them and a few holiday cottages for rent.  Rather expensive holiday cottages I might add.  Fortuitously, Long Track emailed out their tomato relish recipe recently, so voilà, here we have it.  And it worked brilliantly; it tastes just like theirs (funny that).

We had a great road trip down to Canberra, where we visited our nephew and his hubby.  We met up with a Brisbane friend who flew down, so we could all go to the National Portrait Gallery (London) exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (Canberra).  We had a fab weekend, visiting a number of galleries and eating Turkish food on election night.  There was just we three eating in, as I assume locals were glued to their tv's (yes, you do need an apostrophe here), watching the election results.  Yay Labour got in!  This is a sweet relish, my friends, and very delicious.  You could try making it with slightly less sugar, but somehow it all melds together at the end. 

relish on the way!

Makes 2 jars X 250 mL/7 oz

ingredients:

1 kg/2.2 lb tomatoes - any kind, any size

2 cloves of garlic

1 tsp whole cloves (yes, really!)

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp sea salt

a big pinch of cayenne or up to 1 Tbs of chilli flakes

1/2 cup (125 mL) white wine vinegar

200g./7 oz white sugar or caster sugar

Method:

First blitz your tomatoes in a food processor, or mash them up really, really well - with gusto, as Mr P. says

Put everything except the sugar into a large saucepan

Simmer gently for 30 minutes

Then stir in the sugar, bring back to the simmer and let it simmer away for another 30 mins. or so - mine took a bit longer to thicken up, so about 1 hour 10 mins.  Be aware that this is a loose relish, so it won't thicken up like a chutney or jam

Spoon/pour into sterilised jars or bottles; seal and whack into the pantry or fridge, depending on which climate you reside in :-)

Will keep for a year apparently, but not in our household - we love it!

gather your ingredients

blitz your tomatoes

chuck everything bar the sugar into the saucepan

and simmer

then bottle or should I say - jar it?

and whack on a label :-)

© Sherry M.