Pluot Chutney

Update: I discovered to my delight that this chutney (and I assume any fruit-based chutney) makes a killer peanut butter and chutney sandwich–I mean that in a good way.

I impulsively bought some pluots at Costco the other day. I thought they were plums but PJ read the box (unlike me, he reads and even obeys directions!) and informed me that they are a plum and apricot hybrid (a fruit breeder’s labradoodle I guess!) They were dead-on ripe which meant no way could we eat them before they went bad, so I decided it was time to venture into another chutney experiment.

I adapted my recipe from this Kiwi Chutney Recipe because I had everything it called for–except kiwi–and my ripe pluots were similar in sweetness from a ripe kiwi. I did a fair bit of guestimating on ingredients (Why did I use 7 pluots? Because I had 7 pluots!) and added some spices, because I can.

Pluot Chutney

7 very ripe pluots
2 very ripe bananas
2 medium onions
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 cup raisins
1 cup brown sugar
a thumb sized hunk of ginger, minced
3-5 cinnamon sticks
3-4 cracked green cardamom pods
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

Peel and chop the fruits, onion, ginger. Put all ingredients in a heavy non-reactive* pot and boil gently until it becomes soft and thick (took two hours for this batch), stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.

You can certainly preserve it, but there isn’t enough AC in an average American supermarket to convince me to boil jars on my stove in August. However, homecooking.about.com assures me that the acid content will give it several weeks in the fridge. I mean, really, chutneys DID originate in India.

*Non-reactive=not made from iron, copper or brass; otherwise, the acid content may damage the pot and a metallic flavor may be leached into the chutney.