You'll relish my tomato relish.

I normally have a sandwich or two on Monday's and I've been rotating the condiments around a bit but I've gotten bored with them lately and missed having tomato relish. I used to make it back in Australia and Mum said at one stage that she thought I should enter it in the Royal Easter Show for judging...I never did and actually regret it now. (BTW, for the non-Australians here is a link to the Easter Show: http://www.eastershow.com.au/info/index.aspx )

I've only made this once since moving to the US but usually have all the good intentions of making it...this time I actually extracted my digit (pulled my finger out) and made it.

It's really good on sandwiches as well as putting on sausages and steak.

I got the recipe from my trusty Margaret Fulton cook book. I usually make a double batch because it it time consuming and I usually go through it pretty quick.

Ingredients:

1.5kg (3lbs) very ripe tomatoes
500g (1lb) onions
2 cups sugar (you could go with 1 1/2 cups)
2 1/2 cups malt vinegar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp mustard powder
1 tbsp salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Method:

Cut a cross in the bottoms of the tomatoes and blanch them in a pot of boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Remove from the water and peel the tomato, but be careful as the tomato will be very hot...asbestos fingers come in handy!. (The hot water will make the skin practically slide off.)

Chop the tomatoes and put them into a colander sitting in a bowl. You want to collect and set aside 3/4 cup of the juice. (You may have to help the juice out by pushing down on them.) 

Chop the onions, how fine or coarse is up to you, but leave some of them a bit coarse for texture.

Put the tomatoes and onions in a saucepan with the malt vinegar and sugar and simmer, uncovered, until the mixture is thick. This will take a couple of hours at least.

When the mixture is thick, put the reserved tomato juice, flour, curry powder, mustard powder, salt and cayenne pepper in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Pour the mixture into the tomatoes and onions, turn up the heat a little and stir until the mixture comes to a boil, then simmer it for 5 minutes.

Bottle the mixture in clean jars and seal them when they have cooled to room temperature. You DO NOT NEED to follow the American way of sealing the jars in a water bath or however they do it. This stuff will not go off due to the acid in the tomatoes and vinegar. As I mentioned, I've been making this for quite a few years and have yet to get sick or have any "go off" on me.

This is a bit time consuming but really is worth the effort.

Enjoy!

Matt