Loquat Chutney

We had a bumper crop of loquats this year and they ripened early (before the rainbow lorikeets arrived by the masses!) so we had lots to eat, share and preserve!  I scoured the internet for different ways to preserve them and I was quite fruitful 🙂  I’ve made loquat preserve and loquat jelly but I think the best was the loquat chutney.  It is a quick and easy way to preserve the loquats, resulting in a delicious Indian condiment.

I’ll paste the recipe here again, together with my improvisations.

Makes 1¼ cups (I made 4 times this as I had so much loquats!)

1 tablespoon oil

½ teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon curry powder (reduce for less spicy)

10 loquats, peeled, pitted, and roughly chopped (I left the peel on)

½ large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 small red chili, thinly sliced (add more or less depending on preference) (I used pickled chillies as didn’t have fresh, if you like the colour but not the spiciness then substitute with red capsicum)

½ cups apple cider vinegar (I used white vinegar)

2 tablespoons sugar

Salt

Heat the oil in a small pot and add the cumin, mustard seeds, and curry powder. Toast, stirring often, 1 minute, or until the mustard seeds start to pop.

Add the onion and garlic and sauté until tender. Add the loquats and bring to a simmer. Stir in the vinegar, sugar, chili, ginger and salt and simmer, uncovered, about 30 minutes, or until liquid is mostly absorbed and mixture is syrupy.

Allow to cool and refrigerate until ready to use.

Tags: chutney, Indian condiment, loquat