Ginger Hot Pepper Asian Pear Chutney

[catherinecarney]

Hi all--

My asian pears had a bumper crop this year and thought I'd share this recipe for a sweet/sour/hot and spicy chutney with you.

Ingredients:
Approx 4 quarts asian pear chunks (peel and core asian pears and cut into chunks)
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 cup raisins
1 jalapeno pepper, diced (wash your hands well after working with this and don't rub your eyes!)
1/4 cup grated fresh ginger (about 1 large root peeled and grated)
2 cups vinegar (either white or cider)
2 cups brown sugar

Combine the pears, onion, raisins, pepper, and ginger and allow to cook down until pears are soft (asian pears are quite juicy so this step may take a while). Be sure to cook over low heat--it's easy to burn the fruit due to the high sugar content. Your goal is to cook low and slow until the sugars in the pear juice start to caramelize. Once your pear mixture cooked down, and brown sugar and vinegar and heat over low until the mixture forms a "thickish" sauce (it will still be lumpy, but along the lines of the consistency of catsup). Fill half pint jars, process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes to seal if you decide to can it (this makes a year's supply for my family, so there's lots) or keep in the fridge. Haven't tried freezing it yet.

This is a great sauce for pork (we had it over a pork roast last weekend--good eating!), and the ginger/hot pepper spice to it makes it a great base for sweet style barbecue sauces as well.

Enjoy!

Catherine

[orchidsarefun]

yummy !
we used the bulk of our peach crop to make a peach chutney and that turned out really well.

[catherinecarney]

I've done a similar peach chutney with sweet onions and sweet red peppers and love it. Always love to hear how other people use their extras up!

I'll have to post my brandied peach recipe sometime--delicious over New York style cheesecake!

Catherine

[RosieC]

Sounds really yummy!

[catherinecarney]

Thanks! It is!

We've been feasting on a pork shoulder roast with this chutney as the sauce on it this week, and I have some slab ribs that I'll grill over the weekend if the weather holds with this chutney as the base for the barbecue sauce. Should be good!

Catherine

[NYCorchidman]

I'll have to try this.
It sounds really good!

[catherinecarney]

It's been good eating on a variety of meats--pork loin and chicken are my favorites.

I used asian pears out of necessity since I had a bumper crop of them this year and there was no way I was going to eat 3 bushels of them.

They do produce a lot of liquid when chopped, so this recipe requires long and slow cooking to get it to sauce consistency. Peaches would require a similar cooking time.

Happy eating!

Catherine

[NYCorchidman]

I love Asian pear and always had them raw, which is the best way to eat I think.

but this recipe sounds yummy. I will have to try.

[catherinecarney]

I agree that fresh is best--and they will also store for 2 or 3 months in the fridge, so I usually have fresh ones on hand through the start of the year. This was a bumper year for my trees and I was out of space in the fridge and had given away as many as I could to my friends and I didn't want the last of them to go to waste (although I'm sure my sheep would have been happy to help out), so I had to get creative.

Catherine

[NYCorchidman]

True, I once had one that I forgot about the entire winter months and kept in the fridge.

It was just slightly dehydrated in the spring, but still good enough to eat. lol