Friday, June 25, 2010

Kachi keri ni chatni / Raw Mango Chutney

Food restores me like nothing else. And now that my blog is being neglected quite a bit, I thought I might as well break the silence with a few recipes.



Now, I feel chutney is something that hardly needs a recipe, mango, mint and coriander are the very basic ingredients. But then, I feel cooking is not about knowing what to cook and how, it is rather a process of being inspired to cook, on as regular a basis as possible, so that on your platter you have different variations of even the basic comfort food.

The sight of good food can compel you to take efforts in your kitchen too. That's why I keep reading so many food blogs. These wonderful women — Sailu, Shilpa, Shahana, Nupur, Indira, Sangeeta, and the valuable exception Mr Ushnish Ghosh — they work up such magic, that I have to admit that if I care to cook a little more than I used to, it's because of the interest they have inspired in me. I hope this mention of a humble chutney will inspire you to try out many different tangy-hot versions yourself..

Recipe:

The photo is of the mint-mango variety.

In a mixer, grind about 50 gm of chopped mint, half a raw mango, two green chillies, teaspoon of jeera (cumin), salt and sugar with very little water. I always grind all the ingredients without water first and then slowly add 2-3 tablespoons of water while grinding for the 2nd or 3rd time.

I found that instead of mint, coriander goes better with raw mango. The same recipe, using about 50 gm coriander instead of mint tasted infinitely better and retained a wonderful raw green colour that I am so fond of.

Add 2-3 cloves of garlic to the above mix, and you get another splendid taste. However, avoid using sugar when using garlic.

Note: I am not too specific about the quantity of coriander and mango. Use up whatever is available with you, adjust spices accordingly and you will get tasty variants each time. For example, if you use red-chillie powder instead of green chillies and use roasted cumin powder with garlic, the taste is very different.

Prepared thus, and stored in a clean bowl in the fridge, the chutney can last for 3-4 days. It will thicken / dry up and if you want, you can grind it again in a mixer with a little water and salt/chillie to taste after a day or two.

4 comments:

Swaram said...

Woww! Never prepared mango chutney with mint. I am gonna do this one :)

Onion Insights said...

Hi,

Nice post! For this wonderful read, we present you with a unique opportunity of mystery shopping. Onion Insights Pvt. Ltd. is a Global Customer Experience Measurement (CEM) company that uses the tool of Mystery Shopping wherein one poses as a customer to a particular product or service and anonymously evaluates his/her shopping experience and provides a well-written structured report on the findings. The assignment lets you combine two of your favourite things – shopping and writing!

Being a Mystery Shopper not only helps you to become a Better Customer, you also get paid for shopping! You will be paid a nominal fee for your time and efforts and additionally reimbursed for the products you purchase to complete the Mystery Shop. To become a Mystery Shopper, you just have to be of a minimum age of 18, have good command over English and have Internet accessibility.

To begin with, register with us for free at www.onioninsights.info as New Mystery Shopper and start your journey into the world of Mystery Shopping!

Warm Regards,
Onion Insights
T: 91-22-65211001

YOSEE said...

That "being inspired to cook " is the major facet of the cooking process , is something I totally agree with. When one cooks as a matter of routine day in day out, the process can start killing off inspiration. I guess I should also try your "Food Blog Browsing Therapy" to pump life into my kitchen :-) !

Have never tried Mint with Mango in chutney. Must do. Thanks for sharing, Gauri.

Gauri Gharpure said...

Thanks Swaram, Yosee.. Food blog browsing therapy works wonders for the kitchen :)

Mint with mango is fine, but try coriander-mango too, I like it better that way.

Thanks, Onion Insights..