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Chutneys R Us

April 1st, 2007

I know chutneys are an Indian thing, but much like slurpees and curry, I?ve avoided jumping on the Indian food bandwagon. I guess I just have my comfort zone of food. You know, when you have a nice arsenal of 5-7 good recipes you rotate through every week, so you don?t feel the need to experiment? Thankfully, I also have Adult ADD, which means Mama needs a little more variety. So I gave myself a kick in the ass and started forcing myself to look outside the box. And this is so much better than learning other stuff, like math or chemistry, because at the end of the lesson, you get to eat the results. Score. Technically, chutney is an Indian condiment that has fruit, vinegar, sugar and spices in it, and tends to be spicy. Westernized versions of these recipes (read: white people recipes) tend to focus more on the sweet and sour than the spiciness. I started with the white people recipes?baby steps, my friend. Baby steps. I made a dried fig and rosemary chutney to start. It had dried figs, red wine, honey, and rosemary and was really easy to make. I basically combined all the ingredients and simmered over low heat covered until it reduced to a thick jam and most of the liquid had dried up. The result was a flavor I had never made before, more perfumed from the rosemary than sweet. It had an almost hauntingly memorable flavor, sort of like any Indian food made with cardamom or rose water. I found it a good home on a sandwich made of smoked chicken breast, spinach leaves, and Middle Eastern flat bread from the market. Pretty good, but I felt like I personally would want another topping on the sandwich that was not so sweet, maybe more arugala (rocket here in Oz), but it was a pretty good first try. Next I hit up a sweet tomato and raisin chutney. It called for canned tomatoes, lemon juice and zest, raisins (sultanas here in Oz), brown sugar, apple cider vinegar (we found a really great local maker at Central Market who makes it from scratch), mustard seeds, cayenne, allspice, cinnamon and salt, and had the same method as the rosemary fig chutney. I didn?t end up putting as much lemon zest as it called for, mainly because the grater I used to zest it is a piece of crap, and I think I liked it better that way. I served it with smoked chicken (thinly sliced, lunch meat of choice for this month at least) and fresh avocado,salt and pepper on toasted ciabatta bread. And that sandwich officially earned itself a spot a top the prestigious Mountain of Supreme Awesomeness. I felt both proud AND full. Final thoughts: chutneys, even white people versions, kick major ass. ~LTG

Chutneys R Us
This entry is filed under Condiments, Leena Cooks.
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