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Relish this savory-sweet idea for summer produce

Recipe: Plum-plum tomato chutney like a chunky ketchup

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED AUG 11, 2019

Dark plums and ripe plum tomatoes combine in a summery chutney. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

An overload of Juliet tomatoes and a big basket of purple plums inspired this recipe.

After I made several batches of plum jam and tomato sauce, it was time to move on to something that combines the sweet with the savory: Chutney.

This version is nothing like commercial, vaguely Indian chutneys. My tomato-based chutney tastes more like an upscale chunky ketchup with a pleasant balance of sweet and tart. It’s a tasty relish on burgers, hot dogs or sandwiches as well as an accompaniment to pork chops or tenderloin. It works with French fries, too.

Meatier in texture, plum tomatoes cook down faster than their round counterparts, so I like to use them in chutneys, which thicken on the stove. (And it makes for a fun recipe name.)

This recipe can scale up or down, depending on how many tomatoes and plums you have sitting on the counter.

Plum-plum tomato chutney
Makes 4 cups

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds plum tomatoes
1 ½ pounds dark plums
1 cup onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
½ cup chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons red wine
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon ginger
½ cup raisins
¼ cup sugar or to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Wash and roughly chop tomatoes. Pit and finely chop plums. Set aside.

Chutney simmers for up to an hour or more.

In a large heavy pot or Dutch oven, melt butter. Sauté chopped onion until translucent.

Add tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt. Stir and sauté for 5 minutes or until tomatoes begin to soften.

Rinse raisins with boiling water.

Add broth, red wine, vinegar, ginger and raisins to the tomato mixture. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer, uncovered.

Add chopped plums, including any accumulated juices. Adjust heat to keep mixture bubbling but not a full boil, stirring often.

Add sugar, adjusting the amount to the sweetness of the plums.

Let mixture cook down to desired consistency, stirring often to prevent sticking. This can take 20 minutes to an hour or more, depending on how juicy the tomatoes and plums are. Be patient and keep stirring every few minutes.

When chutney is almost done, add salt and pepper to taste.

Store in the refrigerator or process in jars. This chutney also freezes well.

To process in jars: Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath. Makes 4 half-pints.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes tomatoes gardening Sacramento canning plums chutney backyard produce produce management

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Garden Checklist for week of May 19

Temperatures will be a bit higher than normal in the afternoons this week. Take care of chores early in the day – then enjoy the afternoon. It’s time to smell the roses.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. If you haven’t already, it’s time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.

* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Don’t forget to water. Seedlings need moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants.

* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.

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