Spiced roast feijoa chutney
MAKES: 10-12 x 300ml jars TIME: 4 hours (not including waiting time)
THE SPICES IN THIS CHUTNEY ARE WELL WORTH HUNTING OUT FOR THE SMOKY FLAVOUR THEY IMPART.
I got this recipe from Pam in Ohingaroa Bay, who also supplies me with bucket-loads of feijoas. It is based on a Peter Gordon recipe, but he adds a stick from a manuka tree into the roast mix. I have tried it with kanuka as we have so much on our property.
Gordon’s recipe is very sweet, almost a jam, so this one has less sugar.
You can use the feijoas with their skins on if you wish.
The roasting process and the mix of spices makes this an unusual chutney, with a nice smoky flavour thanks to the cardamom. The spices are well worth hunting out, at specialist food stores or online.
INGREDIENTS
2kg feijoas, bud cut off, halved 500g red onions, halved 3 large lemons 4 large green chillies 600g white sugar 3 tsp salt 150ml apple cider vinegar 1 piece of cassia bark or quill 4 green cardamom pods 4 black cardamom pods 1 tsp chilli flakes
METHOD
1 The night before you make the chutney, put your feijoas (skins and all) in a food processor and whizz them up until you have a lumpy mix, not a puree. You’ll need to do it in batches for this amount of feijoas. 2 Do the same with the red onions and the lemons – cut the lemons in half and flick out the pips before you whizz them. 3 Remove the stems and seeds from the green chillies and slice finely. Mix the sludge of feijoas, lemons, onions and the chillies in a large bowl. Add the salt and vinegar and mix slightly, then add the sugar. Cover the bowl and leave on the bench overnight.
4 The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C. 5 Give the mixture in the bowl a good stir, then add the cassia, cardamom and chilli flakes. Pour this into a large roasting dish and cook for 2-3 hours. Give it a stir every half hour or so. It is cooked when the mixture is reddish-brown and most of the moisture has evaporated.
6 Take out the cassia quill and cardamom pods. Pour the chutney into clean jars, seal, and leave for at least a week for the flavours to settle and meld. It should keep for at least a year in a cool place.