You know how we sometimes buy into the commercial ploys right before the holidays and fill our houses with all sorts of junk we don't need? Having never lived in a Christian country, I only have movies and my friends' Christmas experiences to rely on, but here in Israel there is no shortage of pre holiday hype about food. And Israelis like their holidays, as can be evidenced by the fact that there is only one month in the Jewish calendar when there is no religious/national event going on and the said month has been dubbed "bitter" as a result...
Anyway, this whole long introduction is my way of telling you why I decided to make an apricot and kumquat chutney this past Friday. It was the Jewish festival for trees (Tubishvat) recently and the stores were filled with all kinds of dried fruits you could imagine-kiwis, papaya, mango, apples, bananas, grapefruit, fig, quince, pineapples etc. etc. And of course apricots and kumquats. My roommate decided to get the apricots for a party which she ended up not going to and I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to get candied kumquats which I don't even like... So they were sitting there in our respective cupboards waiting anxiously for their fate.
Now I'm a big believer in efficiency and there was no way I was going to let those poor babies go to waste. So in comes the genius idea of making my very own chutney. I am by nature a lazy cook, so a chutney seemed the perfect practical condiment to make to be used in future chicken dishes. After all, at any meal I was served chicken made with store bought chutney, the table is filled with ooh's and aah's and hey-I want some of those too!
My searches on the Internet yielded pork recipes with these fruits, which is not a food you will ever see on this blog. I'm guessing the recipe would have worked with chicken as well, but there was a lot of sugar in there so in the end I decided I have enough experience to make up a recipe of my own. From the reaction of my guests, it seems I did a pretty decent job...
Ingredients
200 gr. dried apricots
1 cup candied kumquats
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp chicken soup mix
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup boiled water
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup soy sauce
glug of white wine
glug of red wine
1. Combine the apricots and kumquats in a food processor and pulse them until you have small pieces of fruit.
2. Transfer the fruit to a saucepan, add the sugar, spices, chicken soup mix and water. Bring to a boil.
3. Stirring constantly over medium-high heat, add in the rest of the ingredients one by one, waiting until each one vaporizes to add the next one.
4. Remove from heat and cool. Keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
You can add the chutney to your chicken directly and bake it covered-both the chicken and chutney will release their juices while baking. I added some coke to my chicken (the beverage, not the drug!) in another attempt to make efficient use of stuff lying around in my house.
Even though I used these specific fruits, you can swap the kumquats for any citrus peel (and increase the amount of sugar if they are not candied) or sub part of the recipe (water, sugar, fruit & lemon juice) with a store bought/home made jam. You can also use orange juice and peel instead of the lemon to make it a little sweeter. In short, it is a very versatile recipe-have fun with it!
And now you'll have to excuse me while I go and dig into the leftovers...
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