Tomato Kasundi Relish

Sackville's Note:

Sometimes life takes us on the strangest paths. My husband and I were cycling through New Zealand one day (on our round-the-world bike trip), when we passed a little jam and jelly stand outside of someone's house. We picked up some jam and a jar of relish that said 'tomato kasundi' on it. We had no idea what this was but once we opened it we fell in love with the slightly sweet, slightly sour, slightly spicy relish inside. It was just perfect for jazzing up cheese and crackers or sandwiches and we carefully rationed out the jar's contents over two weeks. We were so sad when the jar was finished so we sent a postcard to Sue, the maker of the relish according to the label, without really knowing her address but just by describing where the house was on the postcard. The postman came through and found Sue and 2 weeks after we mailed our card we got an email with the recipe. Enjoy!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 2 litres

• 225 g fresh ginger , peeled
• 100 g garlic
• 50 g green chilies , sliced lengthwise, seeds removed
• 2 ½ cups malt vinegar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons turmeric
• 5 tablespoons ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons chili powder (Sue uses about half this)
• 5 tablespoons mustard seeds , ground (Sue uses whole seeds)
• 2 kg tomatoes , chopped
• 2 ¼ cups sugar
• 1 ½ tablespoons salt

Directions:

1. Puree the ginger, garlic and chillies with a little vinegar into a paste.
2. Fry in oil spices until an aroma starts to rise from the pan.
3. Add the pureed paste, tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and salt.
4. Cook until the oil starts to float on top (about half hour).
5. Bottle with a thin film of oil on top to prevent drying out.
6. Leave for 2 weeks for flavours to develop.