Last year a local friend made and gave us a jar of something called tomato kasundi. I’d never heard of it before. It’s a spicy, hot tomato chutney, rich with tumeric, mustard, ginger, nigella seeds, and chillies. I thought it was absolutely delicious and I badgered her for the recipe.
I had been hoping to wait for the house kitchen to be operational before I tried anything like making chutney again. It’s a messy business with lots of mincing, grinding spices and chopping, and the caravan doesn’t really lend itself easily to anything needing cooking space.
But we had tomatoes, onions and chillies to use, and I was keen not to waste them.
Off I went. An hour into the process and I’d peeled, cored and chopped apples, onions, tomatoes, garlic and ginger and was almost ready to start cooking.
The cooking process is simplicity itself – just throw into a pan and simmer for an hour. The caravan very quickly smelled like a vinegar factory and I hurriedly opened as many windows as possible before I choked us both to death.
Sterilising the jars in the tiny oven was fun, but just possible.
The chutney’s now ladled into jars, and once fully cooled I’ll label them up and put them away for a few weeks for the flavours to mellow. If they make it through the taste test at that point some may become Christmas presents to local friends who I know are up for a bit of spice in their lives.
The recipe is here for anyone who would like to try making it https://tastecooking.com/recipes/tomato-kasundi/
Ravencroft Skye 