Tamarillo Achar

This is a continuation of our foray into the tropics of Australia - the Tropical Fruit World of Duranbah. Although we could eat as much as we can at the fruit tasting session, we still bought some to take home. Talk about gluttony...har har har. Anyway, among them, almost a kilogram of tamarillo.

The tamarilloes look so plump and juicy. Montel, my Mama said.

Now, you may ask, what in the world is tamarillo? We also know nuts about tamarillo, at first. So (By the power of Google!!! ...and Wikipedia...) we found this:

Solanum betaceum (syn. Cyphomandra betacea) is a small tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Solanacae. It is best known as the species that bears the tamarillo, an egg-shaped edible fruit. Other names include tree tomato and tomate de árbol. In Indonesia it is known as terong Belanda or Dutch eggplant.

Prior to 1967, the tamarillo was known as the "tree tomato" in New Zealand, but a new name was chosen by the New Zealand Tree Tomato Promotions Council in order to distinguish it from the ordinary garden tomato and increase its exotic appeal. The choice is variously explained by similarity to the word tomato, the Spanish word amarillo, meaning yellow, and a variation on the Maori word tama, for "leadership". It is still called tree tomato in most of the world.

The tamarillo is native to the Andes of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia. It is cultivated in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya, Portugal, the United States Venezuela. It is grown as a commercial crop for international export in New Zealand and Portugal. The first internationally marketed crop produced in Australia occurred around 1996, although permaculture and exotic fruit enthusiasts had increasingly grown tamarillo around Australia since the mid 1970s.

The fruit is eaten by scooping the flesh from a halved fruit. When lightly sugared and cooled, the flesh makes a refreshing breakfast dish.

They give a unique flavor when made into a compote, or added to stews (e.g. Boeuf Bourguignon), hollandaise, chutneys, and curries. They are also tasty and decorative in, for example, radicchio salads. Appetizing desserts using this fruit include bavarois and combined with apples in a strudel.
In Colombia, Ecuador and Sumatra, fresh tamarillos are frequently blended together with water and sugar to make a juice. It is also available as a commercially pasteurized puree.
The flesh of the tamarillo is tangy and mildly sweet, and may be compared to kiwifruit, tomato, or passion fruit. The skin and the flesh near it have an unpleasant bitter taste, and usually aren't eaten raw.

Mama said she doesn't know how to make Boeuf Bourguignon or hollandaise but said we can definitely try making some chutney or curries. She had also tasted jus terong Belanda in her travels in Sumatra but didn't like the taste of it. So we all voted to make some acar out of this juicy wonders. This is the recipe we used:

500g tamarilloes (washed, topped and quartered)

Topped and quartered tamarilloes. Their seeds resemble those of garden tomatoes but with firmer flesh, thus the reference to eggplant as well.

1 tbsp chili paste

50g curry powder

6 cloves garlic

1-inch size of ginger

1 red onion, diced

5 fresh red chilies, sliced finely

1/2 cup vinegar (we used red vinegar)

1/2 cup water

1 cup raisins or sultanas

1 tbsp sesame seeds (we used the black ones)

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp salt (or to taste)

3 tbsp sugar (we used brown)

1. Pound garlic and ginger in a stone mortar.

2. Heat a non-stock wok or pot, pour oil.

3. Saute garlic and ginger until fragrant then add chili paste. Mix and cook through.

4. In a small bowl, mix curry powder with 2 tbsp water. Then add paste into chili, garlic and ginger mixture.

5. Add a little bit of water, making sure mixture doesn't stick at bottom of pot/wok.

6. Add tamarilloes, mix thoroughly with spice mixture. Add vinegar and rest of water, let simmer until fruits become soft.

The concoction simmering in the wok. Drool people, drool....

7. Add sliced chilies and raisins. Let simmer again.

8. Add salt, sugar and sesame seeds. Mix thoroughly and remove from heat.

9. Bottle acar when it has cooled enough to the touch. Use glass bottles. Should keep for about 6 months in the refrigerator.

Bottles upon bottles of acar in our fridge. We like to have a wide variety, just in case.

10. Best served with any meat biryani and plenty of papadoms (just because). purrr.....meow!