GREEN APPLE CHUTNEY

I generally don't eat apples. Not that I don't like them but the only thing that's nutritious in an apple is its skin (The red carotenoids are anti carcinogenic) but I bet its skin contains more pesticide residues than carotenoids. Anyway last week I somehow got tempted by some really fresh looking green apples (this time round the temptation was not in Eden but in the vegetable market). I paid an astronomical price them but they turned out to be too tart. I couldn't bear to throw them nor does my Spartan kitchen allow processing them to jam or baking them so I came up with an apple chutney much in the lines of the ubiquitous tomato chaatney of Bengal.

INGREDIENTS

4 Green apples (Even plain apples will do) grated

1 cup Sugar/Jaggery (grated)

1 dry red chilly

2 bay leaves

2" stick of cinnamon (Dalchini)

2 large cardamons (grind seeds to a coarse powder)

1/2 tsp sauf/Fennel

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp chilly flakes

1/2 cup water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oil

LETS DO IT

1. Heat oil in a kadai

2. Add the bay leaves, cinnamon and dry chilli.

3. Sputter the mustard and fennel seeds.

4. Add the grated apple and salt. Cook on low flame for 10 minutes

5. Add the sugar/jaggery and chilly flakes. Continue cooking on a low flame stirring constantly till the chutney acquires a thick consistency.

6. Add the cardamon powder and mix well.

The chutney once cooled can be stored in a clean dry bottle.

PICKLED DRUMSTICKS

This isn't a standard pickle recipe, I just ended up buying a lot of drumsticks (moringa/sajan phali/sajana) than I could eat from a particularly bedraggled old lady with no teeth and wearing an old dirty torn frock. My neighbours were away and the bai was on leave so all I could think of doing with the drumsticks was pickle them as I couldn't distribute them. Its not a standard pickle recipe as I have warned you earlier, I have put everything and anything I could lay my hands on, thankfully the pickle turned out ok.

INGREDIENTS

1o drumsticks washed and cut to 2" bits

4 tbs Turmeric

4 tbs salt

4 tbs coriander seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

2 tbs fenugreek seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

1 tbs mustard seeds (dry roasted and coarsely ground)

5 tbs red chilly powder (I used a mixture of chilly powder and chilly flakes 3:1)

1 cup oil

juice of 4 lemons

1 tsp mustard seeds (whole and unroasted)

LETS DO IT
 

Mix all the spice powders and salt with the cut drumsticks

Heat the oil and sputter the mustard seeds and add to the drumsticks.

Mix well and add the lemon juice.

Fill in a glass jar and keep in the sun for about a fortnight.

SPICY PRAWN PICKLE

I never knew such a pickle existed till we were gifted a bottle. It looked lovely - fiery red and hot. Since I am a vegetarian I guessed the ingredients pretty much by sniffing the bottle and poking around with a fork. This is my version of a prawn pickle and though I never taste it everyone who eats this says it’s good. Plus no preservatives here like the commercial pickles since salt, spices, turmeric and lemon juice does the preserving.
STATUTORY WARNING: This can get hotter than dallay pickle.
INGREDIENTS
1 kg large prawns
100 grams garlic
100 gms ginger
2tbs each cumin/jeera, coriander/dhania, fenugreek/methi seeds (dry roasted)
1tbs mustard seeds
3 tbs turmeric powder
5tbs Red chili powder (Everest tikha lal is good)
1/2 tsp asafoetida (hing)
Juice of 4 lemons
Oil 250 ml
LET’S DO IT
Clean and de-vein the prawns and wash thoroughly in running water.
Heat oil and deep fry the prawns till they turn pink. Keep the remaining oil.
Grind separately the ginger and garlic to coarse pastes
Grind the dry roasted spices to a coarse powder
Heat the remaining oil and sputter the mustard seeds.
Add the ginger and garlic pastes and fry till it turns golden
Add the ground spices, turmeric and chilly powder and salt and mix well
Turn off the flame and add the juice of 4 lemons to the fried masala mixture.
Add the masala mixture to the prawns and mix well.
Cool before storing in a airtight jar.
This pickle keeps for a week and best eaten with hot white rice.