Hey my dear reader! How are you doing? You know what I
think…I think tomatoes are made in heaven! I mean I know it is a fancy thing to
say, and tomatoes grow in their trees, so heaven must be in the air…but once in
awhile when I start to love something or someone dearly, my mind fills up with beautiful imagination –
a different world is created where the boundaries of reality and imagination
exchange each other’s caps. Now the thing is I really like tomatoes…some of my
favorite food items contains them in abundance, imagine a pizza without tomato
sauce! Or a Chana Masala without them! Or Ghughni without the red ripe tomatoes
in them? Or Bruschetta without tomatoes! Spaghetti without tomato sauce! Even Bloody
Mary will be incomplete without them! Sounds dull right? Yes the world will be
dull without tomatoes. As a kid I was a huge fan of tomato ketchup, I grew up
licking it, pouring them on noodles until it was a bit too much, pouring them on puffed rice,
samosas, puff pastry and what not! I remember as a little boy I used to have tomato ketchup
just like that anytime really and when
the big bottle was about to finish, no more drops will fall off, I used to pour
a little water inside the bottle followed by some shakes so the water will turn
into a lighter tomato ketchup and have it! Imagine this! Oh and where I will be without my glorious tomato chutney! Without the chutneys a big
part of my childhood will lose its flavor, as if the sweet chutneys added their
sweetness and flavor into my childhood and made it a sweet comfortable place.
So how can I not tell you about chutneys? Especially the ones I adore.
Chutney is Indian in origin and as time passed by it spread its flavor across
the seas, so much so that chutneys are now established part of British cuisine.
However the chutneys in India are quite different than the ones you may find in
Britain, especially in the use of malt vinegar used in British chutneys for
long keeping, so it becomes more close to the idea of pickles. In India vinegar
is not used in any chutney, also the fact that there are almost 2 categories of
chutney-the sweet ones and the savory ones. Basically chutney is a relish made
from fresh fruits or tomatoes or dried fruits like dates, raisins, kismis and figs,
from sun-dried mango pulp cakes/aam-papd/aamsatto plus the spices used in them which
vary along with the ingredients. Chutney is real comfort food; you can have it
at the end of a meal which will only make the ending sweeter, isn't that nice! You
can have it mixed with a little rice, with crisp fried papadums, with a crisp
thin toast, even spread on a thin crust pizza base…and we have in hand a very
delicious sweet pizza... yummy. You can even use it as the main ingredient of a
dressing for a salad...Like I do when I make green mango chutney which I later
use as a dressing on a simple salad and the salad bursts into a song as the
chutney comes into play! Oh I think I am getting carried away. By getting
carried away has its own rewards…we reach new shores where we have not been
before.
I simply love sweet chutneys, they are my comfort deserts, bursting with
flavors and they pamper me so much. I enjoy them on a wet monsoon day when
everything around me is wet and I dig into the chutney with my boat of crisp
fried papadums which is super yummy, or a summer evening with green mango
chutney, some tamarind chutney, on winter days like this I am with date-aam-papad
chutney, mix fruit chutney, some days I’m busy with deep red cherry chutneys… I
am seducing my soul writing about chutneys so much...because I have such
memories it is very easy for me to get myself there mentally as I write it.
What I really hope that you, dear reader, if you have never tasted chutney
before, now the time has come that you must and after that experience you will
be a very happy person.
The
fun part was in the elaborate way of eating chutney with my hands, more hands-
very less spoon experience. I used to sit with a big bowl of tomato and green
mango chutney with tiny spoon, I only used the spoon to lift a little amount of
chutney into my palm , then lick it, dip my fingers into the chutney, lifting
up chunks of tomato n mango out of the bowl, balancing them on my fingers tips
on the way to my lips while some drops of the syrup of the chutney will fall
all over me, and then next moment is chutney mediation moment, eyes closed,
lips sealed with chutney…ummmm. It was such a fun where the experience of
enjoying it became as fun as eating it. I used to eat it at times with my
sister and my friend. Now it is still fun for chutneys stay chutneys all along
the time and they make us happy just like yesterday.
I think chutneys are quiet romantic food, if someone has to
make a sweet impression on someone or just to make someone happy, prepare a
delicious chutney and you will see how far it goes. I hope it goes very far.
Now there is a saying “ all is well that ends well”, now this I find to be
true, wherever I go out to eat at a traditional place or I cook up a whole traditional meal ending
with chutney, it becomes the most satisfying moment to end with a good chutney.
There can be blunders in the course of the meal where some items didn't make
you happy, while some blew my mind away with their flavors, but as the sweet
chutney makes it entry…u la la…i forget about all the blunders, superb dishes
are forgotten, all I remember is the chutney.
Aright so now straightaway I will give you the recipe for
the sweet tomato chutney. Oh! By the way did I tell you that the word chutney
has its source from the word “chaat” which is a verb and which means to lick,
so you must lick.
The recipe: You will need
4-5 medium red ripe tomatoes
1 tsp of five spice (cumin, fennel, nigella seeds, black
mustard, fenugreek seeds-use half the amount of fenugreek compared to amount of
each individual other spice, like 1 unit each of cumin, fennel, nigella, black
mustard n ½ unit of fenugreek seed.)
¼ the block of aam-papd/aamsatto block cut into ½ inch
cubes.
A handful of dates halved or quartered.
½ cup of sugar (you may need more or less depending on the
tartness of the tomatoes or how sweet you want your chutney to be)
1 ½ cup of water
Pinch of salt.
½ tsp of vegetable oil.
Around ½ tsp of tamarind paste or store brought tamarind
chutney for a touch of sourness.
Begin by removing the
eye of the tomatoes from their top part , then
cut them into medium chunk along their length, say making 4-5 chunks out
of one half of the tomatoes. Having done that place the sugar and the water
together in a pan, then put the pan on low flame, stir in between until the
sugar has completely dissolved , then increase the flame to medium and let it
come to a simmer. While it comes to a simmer take another pan, on medium flame,
heat the oil in the pan, then add the five spice in the pan, on low flame give
it 30 seconds until the mustard seeds start to sputter, then add the tomatoes,
toss them with the spices for a 2-3 minutes. Now transfer the whole batch of
tomatoes along with the spices in the sugar syrup. Add the dates and half of
the aam-papad cubes and then cover the pan and let it only simmer like that for
about 15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt in between, check the sweetness, if you
think it need more sugar according to your taste go for it. after about 15 /20
minutes it has reached the stage of being called a chutney, most of the water
by now has reduced now, it is much more thicker now, the tomatoes are softer,
part of the tomatoes has melted into the syrup. If you would want the chutney
to be little thin stop at this part, if you want otherwise give it couple of minutes.
Now add the tamarind pulp/chutney, mix well, and put the flame off. Add the
rest half of the aam-papad, cover the pan and leave it for 5 minutes. Super
simple isn't it! Now you can start licking. :) enjoy it with crisp friend
papadums, crisp chips, crisp tortilla, crisp roti, on toasts, on graham
crackers or just on their own. Bon appétitJ
No comments:
Post a Comment