Obstacles on the path to the chutney kingdom

Apart from the perishable ingredients, what do you require to make a chutney? The know-how, a pan or a wok and a grinder. All these proved to be major irritants when I started thinking of chutneys from an actual recipe point of view. Rightly so because throwing things together - items that are in your pantry, items in your refrigerator that have not gone bad yet - and winging it, even though it is based on years and years of cooking experience is painfully different from writing down a recipe in such a way that other people, who many times might not have the faintest idea about what you are talking about, can reproduce it without tearing their hair and be actually happy with the result of their effort.

The know-how

I knew a good amount of chutney recipes. I had seen them being made by my mother, my aunts and cousins. But there are some exotic ones, which I had eaten but never attempted on my own. In acquiring these I faced a common problem. None of these recipes were made with any fixed amount of ingredients in mind. It was all a matter of ball parking, estimating on the fly, eyeballing, heuristics and I don't know what else - maybe coming together of certain stars. Seriously, exaggeration aside, some women started getting headaches the minute I asked about quantities and proportions. Some just brushed me aside, "How daft was I?" The message being, "You just know these things. If you know, you know. If not, well...bad luck. How can I tell you?" And some just plain told me, "I will cook, you look and figure out the proportion." But I persisted, they relented and we slowly and steadily worked out the proportions.

The pan

In the Indian kitchens, the chosen pot of cooking is the kadhai, a wok-like pot with a round bottom, with two O-shaped handles on each side. Kadhais, commonly made of aluminum and cast iron, are used for everything from roasting, deep-frying to sautéing. I use a cast iron kadhai for chutneys. Not only does it cook faster but it also infuses the nutrient iron into the chutney. The only problem with the kadhais is they don't have a lid; at least the old kadhais didn't have one. So I end up with a lame attempt at the lid, a stainless steel dinner plate or a snack plate (In India generally food is eaten in stainless steel plates and in my home too). What you can use is a sauté pan or a wok or any pan that can withstand heat and the ensuing browning without any additional liquid.

The machine

We now come to the conundrum of which machine to use to reduce the chutney to a paste, coarse or fine, as the recipe demands।This is a part of a bigger problem faced by the Indian cooks, who have immigrated to the Western world. While setting up the kitchen, most new arrivals out of financial constraints and lack of awareness settle for the $25-$30 blender. I did that too. But the blender is not meant to reduce the food to paste, certainly not without any additional liquid. What they miss is a gadget called grinder or mixer as it is interchangeably called in India. A must-buy for newly-weds, a grinder is a jazzy array of three jars and three blades each meant to grind a different set of items to pulp or powder or paste; the big jar for milkshakes, juices and smoothies, the medium jar for grains and lentils and the small jar for small-ticket items like chiles, ginger, garlic and their paste. And let me tell you, they grind the hell out of whatever it is - soaked dals, lentils, peanuts, rice and many more intractable items to unrecognizable consistency, color and texture. I needed a contraption that would give me an option of blowing the food to smithereens.

Alton Brown in his fine book "Alton Brown's Gear For Your Kitchen", loaded with information garnered over the years with the school-of-hard-knocks-approach, says, "When deciding whether to break out the food processor or the blender, here's a good rule of thumb: use a food processor for pureeing food that is more solid than liquid and a blender for food that is more liquid than solid." Though chutney falls into the former category, the food processor does not work for the chutney, according to me. I tried to make the tomato chutney and the opu squash chutney in a food processor. They turned out to be a sad imitation of a mush. Big chunks of chile skin - sure to get stuck in teeth - were left behind, the tomatoes already wilted by cooking broke down further (which could have been accomplished by cooking too) and I could still see distinct bits of peanut powder. The opu squash chutney became granular. What the food processor did was reduce each and every ingredient to granular bits without any major interaction between the ingredients. It failed to process the chutney as an organic whole. All the components remained conspicuously apart and the end product was less than the sum of the ingredients - in texture, flavor as well as appearance.

What do you use for chutneys that demand a fine paste like cilantro chutney or a mint chutney? So I was looking for a machine, more of a grinder than a food processor, something that can blow the food to unrecognizable smithereens, if desired। Magic Bullet comes close to that। I do have to add some liquid - either water or lime juice - to make the Magic Bullet reach its full potential but it does reduce say a cilantro or a mint chutney to an admirable texture।

Let me give you the recipe of my favorite chutney, the tomato chutney and you can decide for yourself if the trouble is worth it।

Classic Tomato chutney

With what

• 3 plum tomatoes
• 6 long green chiles
• 2 tbsp peanut powder
• 1 tbsp oil

If you are using Jalapeño or Serrano pepper, use just two. Serrano is way hotter and Jalapeños tend to be rather unpredictable.

How to make

Wash the tomatoes and chop them into 3/4 inch pieces. In a pan add oil to the tomatoes and the peppers. Turn the heat on medium. There are two ways to get this mixture cooked. Either keep an eye on it and sauté frequently or cover the pan with a lid. With the lid what will happen is the tomatoes will sweat and become runny after about ten minutes. Let the liquid left off by the tomatoes evaporate. Before you turn the heat off, check for the color of the peppers. They should have turned a pale green from their earlier bright green. In short make sure that the peppers are cooked too. Otherwise the chutney will turn out way too hot. Once this mushy tomato/chile mixture has cooled, put it in a blender. Add peanut powder, cumin and salt. Blend it, though, not too fine. Add fodni.

Fodni - Heat oil in a small, preferably narrow and round saucepan. Add mustard seeds. If the oil has heated up well, as soon as you add the mustard seeds they start popping. Let them finish popping. You might want to cover the saucepan to avoid the seeds hitting your skin (it feels like you got a tiny pinch with nails, that stings more than when a large portion of the skin is squeezed) and flying all over the place. Once that is done, add asafetida and turmeric. Turn the heat off and add the fodni to the tomato chutney. Once you hear the 'cchrrr' sound of the fodni hitting the chutney, it is ready to be devoured. Fodni not only makes the chutney creamier but also changes its appearance. From a pale, muddy-red mush it suddenly comes to life. Now it has a bright yellow hue with specks of black seeds.

How to eat

Eat as a dip with tortilla chips or warm pita bread. Also works as a great sandwich spread if sour cream or cream cheese is added.

Stay tuned for the next post. It's on peppers, chiles or whatever you call them.