CRI a cautionary tale

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
55
Rossendale, Lancashire
Today I am functionally left handed. Since I am usually heavily right handed this means I have all the dexterity of a dead walrus* so it's a bit frustrating.

At the weekend we were at a friends and since there was no chance of them now ripening and he being awash with a bumper crop already we brought home a carrier bag full of green tomatos.

Since we are a savoury lot we are heavy users of chutney so I decided to make some spiced chutney, basically boiling up the following until you could see the base of the pan when the spoon was slowly dragged across the bottom. Even none matured it's rather good.

Green tomatoes – 4lb roughly liquidised.
Apples – near 2lb peeled, cored and chopped fine
Ginger – about 2 level table spoons
chillies – about 2 lids full of Asdas mild stuff
Paprika - 1 heaped teaspoon
Sultanas – bit over a pound rough chopped

Dates - best quality, stones removed and rough chopped 1lb
Onions – 1lb chopped fine
Shallots - 1 lb nearly, chopped fine
Salt – 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt

Coarse ground black pepper - 1 heaped table spoon
Demerara sugar – half a pound

Dark brown sugar ( muskavra?) - little over a pound
Malt vinegar – 2.5 pints

Hendersons Relish - about a third of a bottle.

It took about 4 hours to boil down with pretty constant stirring when I wasn't chopping and adding stuff. The next day it was brought back to the boil and kept there while the jars heated up in a water bath in the oven, say 45 mins more stirring, at this point it had been come quite painful so I had to finish left handed. Bizarrely the mixture had reduced so it barely filled 3 two pound Kilner jars! More worrying today I am popping ibuprofen and rubbing Deep Heat into my wrist and I can't even open a door with it without squealing like a stuck pig!

So there you are my first Chutney Related Injury. In about a month we should have some decent, peppy, vinegary chutney. Not quite eye watering but with a bit more bite than the bought stuff!

ATB

Tom

* and possibly the look and smell.
 
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wicca

Native
Oct 19, 2008
1,065
34
South Coast
Well! I've known people get injured with a black eye or punch on the nose for ..stirring things up..but Tomatoes? That's just silly Tom..
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I hope you're back to ambidextrous soon ..:D
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,241
385
74
SE Wales
I hope it heals up in time for you to be able to get the chutney out of the jar right-handed! :)
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
55
Rossendale, Lancashire
Thanks ! The sad thing there's another half a carrier bag of the green toms to use up, no room in the fridge or freezer so we want to get them processed ASAP. Thankfully if I time it right I've plentiful child labour ( I say child, the youngest is a husky 14 now, at that age his grandad was playing hooky from school and supporting his family! Then again I was laying about being over fed and making Aifix models still at 14, times they change. )

Just wondering what there is locally I could pick and use with them. Only things I've noticed are huge crops of blackberries and haws.

I'll be fine in a couple of days if it runs to form, Just anoying as there's things to do, we scrounged 2 Oz of block yeast at Tescos Bakery on Monday and bought some fresh strong white, the big bag of stone grown wholemeal we got at a water mill at a museum last year is past its best, the gluten had given up by the second rising last time. I need to google what to do to it to make something to feed the birds with rather than just bin it.

Hands not so bad, can close it enough to actually touch thumb to finger tips now with minimal wincing.

Back to tidying the shed while listening to Kerrang

ATB

Tom
 
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Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
28,213
3,191
63
~Hemel Hempstead~
I hear you Tom... I was doing Damson jam yesterday and was aching by the end of it.

With regards the remaining green tomatoes you've got you could always do fried green tomatoes as a snack :)

[video=youtube;FVfEm34RRMo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVfEm34RRMo[/video]
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
55
Rossendale, Lancashire
Well, they do look well, a few of the toms are big enough to slice like that and I have the cornmeal to hand. I may try that when my paws up to it.

Cheers!

Tom
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
55
Rossendale, Lancashire
Discovered I can't cut tomatoes one handed, the amount you need to squash them in a vice to stop them slipping as you saw at them, even with a razor sharp kitchen knife, crushes them. I'll wait until some one comes home. I am so cackhanded with my left hand!

i need to make labels for the three jars of chutney, will have to type and print off as I can't hold a bl@@dy pen.

ATB

Tom
 

mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
45
North Yorkshire, UK
You need to sharpen your knives more, a good knife should sink part way through a tomato without moving.

I've had practise, spent months with one arm in plaster this year.
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
55
Rossendale, Lancashire
Just tried it with a fresh Swann Mortin scalpel blade and it just pushed the green tomato across the work bench. Chopping down wards is easy, making a precise slice from the side with my crack handed ness, nah, I can't blame the tools, it's me! The kitchen knives I keep dry shaving sharp, easy enough on a Tormek-7.

ill have a sandwich instead!
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
55
Rossendale, Lancashire
Cheers for the ideas folks but I can wait until the minions get home at 3, mind getting them to cook a simple meal last night, just haggis, mash, honey and butter fried parsnips and some onions and garlic roasted in the oven was like herding 3 monkeys formerly used for testing LSD....

i should get get full use back by the week end if I don't do owt silly. Last night someone called for something to be passed urgently and I forgot about the hand and tried to comply. I'm told I screamed quite loudly although I deny it. I do do recall swearing foully at the person who'd quite reasonably asked for the help, being something easily done left handed. Thankfully quite a eatable meal cured the sulking.

atb

tom
 

mrcharly

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 25, 2011
3,257
45
North Yorkshire, UK
You are using a polished edge. Sliding right off the tomato.

Sharpen using a coarse stone (say, 250 waterstone), then finish on a leather strop.

You'll be able to touch it to a tomato, give the knife a nudge and watch it sink through the tomato.
 

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