I have had an overabundance of tomatoes this year! Luckily I have been able to share the bounty with some friends but still….I have made a ton of tomato sauce for the winter. Growing vegetables has been one of the best things I’ve done. It’s cut my grocery bill way down and I get to watch things grow. Amazing. Anyway, now it’s getting to be fall and there are still lots and lots of tomatoes on the plants and I know they won’t have time to ripen. I did an internet search and of course fried green tomatoes came up, which are good, but I wanted something more.
I had heard of Chow Chow but thought it was cabbage based, which it can be. But there is also a green tomato version of this sweetish relish. I had also heard that it is a delicious relish for the usual hamburgers, hot dogs etc but that it is also good on pulled pork sandwiches, good in chili and lots of other things too! I used a recipe from Mommy’s Kitchen and I cut down the sugar by half and used brown sugar instead. I also added about 1/2 tsp of turmeric. Other than that it was as written so thank you! Now what to do with all the zucchini?
Chop the tomatoes and peppers very finely or if you prefer a chunky relish dice into
Simmer until the relish/chow chow cooks down and thickens into a relish, about 2 hours. Fill mixture into hot sterilized pint size jars and process in a hot water bath. Process 10 minutes for pint size jars.
Remove jars using canning tongs and place on a counter with a towel. Let jars cool until the lids have popped and sealed.
Recipe Yields: 5 – 6 pint size jars
Recipe Source: The Gift of Southern Cooking