Our lovely loquat tree has been around so long, and so many people have a similar one in their backyard, that somehow I always just assumed it was a uniquely South African fruit (much like the other members of my family *wink*)
So it possessed me this Heritage Day that I was finally going to do something with all those yellow fruit burdening my tree. Oh yes, I've claimed it as mine since I was always the kid who scoffed most of them before pointing out that some had started ripening.
Only then after hunting down some recipe's online did I find out that the loquat actually originated in China. What?
Ah well, what with us pretty much eating anything the Chinese have been feeding us politically for a while now... perhaps it was fitting that I sat peeling 1kg of these sweet and sour fruit on our national holiday?
Here's a recipe I found in The Times which sounded quite nice! I think I may have either made my tea too strong, or cooked the syrup a little long though as mine seems to be lacking the beautiful golden colour this image shows. I'm trying it again! At least now I have my own little kitchen to mess in and won't torture the rest of the house with my mess the next time.
1-1,5kg ripened but firm loquats, washed
3 cups of sugar
3-4 cups of rooibos tea made using four well-steeped rooibos tea bags
10ml whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
5ml mixed spice
125ml brandy
Method:
Peel loquats by blanching in boiling water to which the juice of one lemon has been added. Leave until the skin loosens - it will just be a couple of minutes. Drain, cool, peel, halve and remove the seeds.
Combine the sugar and rooibos tea in a large pan. Bring to a gentle boil stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Add the spices and simmer for 10 minutes. Add brandy to syrup. Pack fruit into sterilised glass jars, pour over warm syrup and seal. Leave to infuse for a couple of weeks.
This is good served with ice cream or cheese.
