A friend of mine picked a bunch of kumquats recently and gave me a huge bag of them. Another friend made a delicious batch of kumquat chutney a while ago, and gave me the recipe. Made about 2 cups of chutney.
Kumquat Chutney
- 20 ounces kumquats
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 ounces raisins
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 small serrano or jalapeno, thinly sliced (optional)
- Salt and pepper
- 1 small stick cinnamon
- 2 cloves
- ½ cup orange juice
Wash the kumquats well. Slice them about ¼” thick and remove the seeds. In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the kumquats, garlic, and onion. Sauté for 3 minutes, then add the ginger, raisins, brown sugar, vinegar, serrano (if using) salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Cook for 10 minutes.
Add the cinnamon, cloves and orange juice. Mix well and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Taste and add salt, pepper, sugar and more serrano if necessary.
You can eat it as soon as it’s cooled, but it’s better after a day or two in the fridge. Enjoy!
My verdict:
The hardest part of this is seeding the kumquats, but luckily I had a good friend who volunteered to help. It was worth it, though. This is a chutney that you can use like a marmalade. We had it on some chicken thighs and asparagus—better on the thighs than the asparagus, but who knew?
I used about 2/3 of a serrano, and it really didn’t bring much heat, but I decided that I wanted to keep it on the mild side. And because my kumquats were pretty tart, I added about another ¼ cup of brown sugar and another ¼ cup of honey. Next time, it might be more honey and less brown sugar.
Thanks to Leah for the kumquats and Liz for the recipe!
What’s your favorite thing to do with kumquats?
