Aotearoa and Australia · Volume 04, The Roast, the Dairy and the Corner Shop
Feijoa chutney
New Zealand
Illustration
- Time
- 3 hours
- Researched
- 8 sources cited
Feijoas ripen mid-March to May, and the fruit's brief season and heavy backyard yield genuinely drive a social ritual of surplus, doorstep gifts, office shopping bags, buckets left at the gate, more than any single recipe does.
As tradition built it
Makes 8 to 10 small jars. About 3 hours.
Ingredients
The tradition's method, with the ingredients named. Quantities follow as we verify them.
- 1.5kg feijoas, peeled and chopped
- 500g apples, peeled and chopped
- 500g onions, finely sliced
- 750ml malt vinegar
- 750g soft brown sugar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tbsp ground allspice
- 1 tbsp crushed garlic
- 1 lemon, zested
- ½ tsp mace
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp ground cloves
Method
- Combine everything in a large pot and bring to the boil.
- Simmer, stirring more toward the end, until thick and brown, up to 3 hours.
- Bottle warm into sterilised jars; refrigerate once opened. Makes 8 to 10 small jars.
What a modern chef changes
A reduced glaze, and a dehydrated garnish
Adapted from Forest, Auckland's deep-fried feijoa dessert, into this chutney's savoury context. Rung 5.
Method
- Reduce the finished chutney further into a thick glaze, useful as a plating element rather than only a jarred condiment.
- Dehydrate thin feijoa slices separately for a crisp textural garnish, echoing the fruit's own season on the plate rather than only in the jar.
- Pair with a firm, washed-rind or blue cheese, treating the chutney as a cheese-course component in the same register as this chapter's Whitestone and Kāpiti cheeses.
Notes
Forest's own dish is a distinct dessert not reproduced here; this is Rung 5's restraint and provenance discipline applied to a savoury preserve rather than Rung 4's sugar work.