At the end of the tomato season, some rather sad and motley specimens were left on the plants on my balcony. They ranged from over-ripe and bursting to bright green and rock-hard, and yet I didn’t want to throw them away. Then along came a post about using late crop tomatoes in chutney from the lovely Sharon McMaster of Kindergarden Cooks which inspired me to do this:

Ingredients:

Half a red onion

500 g tomatoes of all colours, sizes and levels of ripeness.

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 small, hot, red chilli

Piece of ginger root, about 2cm.

1 tsp paprika

Salt and pepper

What to do, roughly speaking:

Chop the onion, tomatoes, garlic, ginger and chili very finely

Place all the ingredients in a pan, bring to the boil then reduce to a low simmer for an hour

Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Turn up the heat and boil, stirring frequently, until the chutney begins to become sticky.

Leave to cool and place in sterilised jars.

Lovely in a cheese sandwich, to glaze chicken wings before roasting, or just on it’s own on crackers.