Pamela’s Feijoa Chutney

You leave the skins on for this recipe, so it’s great for when you have lots of unsprayed fruit.

A funny story… my daughter’s friend’s father asked me if I liked feijoas one year. LOVE ‘EM! I replied. Well I don’t, he said – but there are 3 trees on our property we’ve just moved to. I’ll bag you up some. The next week, true to his word, in he comes with two big shopping bags of fruit, mostly overripe, and handed me this recipe. “I don’t like feijoas but I do like this chutney my neighbour makes” he said with a big grin on his face! Needless to say I took the ‘hint’ and returned the favour… and it is delicious chutney :0)

Ingredients:

• 1 kg feijoas
• 500 g onions
• 500 g dates (pitted)
• 300 g raisins
• 500 g brown sugar
• 1 tsp (1 or 2) black olives (pitted)
• 1 Tbsp ground ginger
• 1 Tbsp curry powder
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ tsp salt
• 4 C cider or malt vinegar

Preparation:

1. Top, tail and dice feijoas, leaving skin on.
2. Finely chop onion.
3. Coarsely chop dates and raisins.
4. Finely mince black olive(s) – measure 1 tsp to use.
5. Combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring to boil.
6. Turn down and cook gently for 1 ½ - 2 hours*, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick on the bottom of the pot.
7. The chutney should be cooked until thickened to finished consistency.