Green Tomato Chutney

I've been into sandwiches in the past couple weeks. Probably because Rick and I have been trying to make a concerted effort to bring our lunches to work to save some money. As vegetarians, the standard lunch-meat sandwiches are not on the menu. So I've been trying to spice up boring ol' cheese sandwiches a bit. Mainly, I've been doing this with the green tomato chutney I made last summer when we had a bumper crop of green zebra tomatoes. This is a heritage variety that doesn't actually turn red. At first it was a little hard to figure out when they are ripe. But eventually I concluded that they are ripe when the green starts to have a slight yellow tint and when you give the tomato a little squeeze it feels soft. They are quite tart tomatoes with beautiful white-ish vertical stripes. They're good in salad or maybe a salsa but we had lots of other tomatoes for that too.
Many years ago I remember helping my mother make green tomato chutney because an early frost had killed all our tomato plants with many unripened tomatoes still on the vines. We made a huge batch and preserved it in mason jars, which sat in the cupboard for years because no one in the family really liked the chutney or knew what to do with it. I obviously didn't want my tomatoes to languish on the shelf in the same way so I did a hunt for good recipes. I also decided to use a combo of rip green zebras and unripe green tomatoes in my chutney because I find that unripe green tomatoes are pretty tasteless and I wanted a nice juicy chutney. I found a good one with a lot of coriander seeds and mustard seeds that give the chutney a really nice spicy-aromatic touch. It also contains raisins and apple, so with the vinegar, it has a lovely sweet and sour contrast.
This chutney goes great with a sharp cheddar or a fried egg sandwich and its killer with a samosa. I gave a jar to my next door neighbour and she's still raving about it months later. She recently introduced me to someone by saying I make a mean chutney. I didn't think it was the top of my list of accomplishments, but I guess so.

Green Tomato Chutney
4 small apples or under-ripe pears, peeled and chopped
4 large under-ripe tomatoes and 4 large ripe green zebra tomatoes, chopped coarsely
2 large onions, chopped
1 cup raisins or currants
1/4 cup black mustard seeds
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablesppon ground coriander (this was also from our garden, more about this another day)
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cardamom

Combine all ingredients in a large pand, stir over heat, without boiling until sugar is dissolved. Simmer, uncovered about 1 hour or until thick, stirring occassionally. Spoon hot chutney into sterilised jars and seal immediately. Keeps for about 6 months unopened. Refrigerate after opening. Makes about 4 jars.