After making the lamb and quince tagine, the Accidental Locavore still had a few quince rolling around the kitchen.
This chutney looked like an interesting way to put them to good use and I happened to have all the ingredients on hand — always an incentive!
Makes about 3 cups.
Quince Chutney Recipe
- 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
- 1 large shallot, minced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 1/2 pounds quinces (about 3), peeled, cored, and diced
- 1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
- 1 1/2 cups loosely packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 3 green cardamom pods, crushed
- 3 black peppercorns, crushed
- 1 cinnamon stick
Heat the oil in a deep, non-reactive (stainless steel or enamel) pot over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are translucent.
Add remaining ingredients to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about an hour or until the consistency is thick and jammy.
Serve chutney at room temperature and enjoy!
My verdict:
Delicious! This was a lovely accompaniment to a variety of cheeses (not that good cheese really needs it) we had at a friend’s house. It was also great with some roast pork we had for the holidays.
Prepping the quince is a lot like prepping apples and they tend to turn brown like apples, but it doesn’t matter since they’re going to be cooked down.
If you don’t have dried cherries, try dried cranberries, or a mix. If you like raisins, they would probably work well too.
My chutney took about 90 minutes to become what looked like “jammy” to me. However, when it cooled down it got much thicker. Depending on how thick you want the end product to be, cook it for 60-90 minutes on low heat. I used a non-stick pan which made cleaning up easy.
