In a bit of a [tomato] pickle

Tomato produce

I've been busy with tomatoes of late, with mixed success. With the residents of government house away, and a number of hot days over Christmas, the tomato plants at government house started to get a bit stressed. So, I had a bit of a picking frenzy, of both green and red tomatoes, before they got too stressed by the heat, or over ripe. 

I've been meaning to experiment with chutney for a while, so I got to work with both green and red chutney. The red chutney is an absolute killer. It's devine, even if I do say so myself. I mostly used cherry tomatoes, and added some celery and green pepper, vinegar, raw sugar, and some spices...and it turned out pretty bloody yummy. AND VERY RED.

The only problem is I clearly need advice on the canning front, because within a week there was a fine layer of mould around the top of jar....Sad face...bit devastated. I rescued most of it and it is in the freezer now. Hopefully I will have better luck next time, and maybe some tips from the experts I think.

Cherry Tom tray

I am also having a crack at making semi dried tomatoes. The first batch, with the cherry tomatoes turned out yummy, but nothing like the shops. Very more-ish mini slightly salty flavour bombs.  I picked up on MamaNourish pink salt fetish and have been using it a bit of late, so sprinkled some over the tray. 

The next tray has the larger tomatoes, and I've sprinkled both a bit of salt and sugar over that lot, so we shall see how it turns out. More yummyness I hope.

Semi Dried cherry tomatoes