Foreign ingredients I

I have great nostalgia for the word "foreign" because of the way it was used when I was growing up in India. Used incorrectly as a noun like "abroad," rather than the adjective that it is, it invoked the desire, glamour of the West. "He's gone to foreign," or "she bought this for me from foreign." Once the "f" word was used, it did not matter what country "foreign" implied. Nobody bothered to ask which country was being referred to. It was "foreign", it was the coolest and nobody could take it away from the person who was telling the story.

Now that I'm living in "foreign," I decided to make chutneys with produce, herbs or ingredients, that were not found in India when I was growing up. Now things are slightly different though.

Olive chutney

 

With what

* 18 Manzanilla green olives (common variety available in most super markets)

* 5 thai chiles

*2 tsp olive oil

*1/2 tbsp water

How to

Coarse grind all the ingredients.


How to eat

I decided to make a sandwich with this olive chutney based on the Italian sandwich "muffuletta." Originating in the Italian immigrants of New Orleans, this sandwich has an olive salad, mozzarella and meat.

My version was vegetarian.  Use regular ciabatta bread and apply olive chutney. Layer slices of fresh mozzarella and grilled eggplant inside. Try it!