This is my standard coconut chutney. My Tamilian friend Meena shared this recipe with me years ago. The frozen coconut and the Vitamix makes this recipe very easy.
In your vitamix- blend 200 mg of fresh coconut (the pitaya brand of frozen coconunt for smoothies is the best frozen coconut I’ve ever used) and a handful of cashews (about 1/4 cup) with about half a cup of cilantro, 1-2 jalapenos, 1/4 tsp or so of salt and enough hot water (about 1/4 cup) to blend to a smooth paste.
Top with tadka- heat 1-2 tbsp of oil and 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds till they sputter. Add a big pinch of asafetida, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, 5-7 torn kadipatta leaves and 2-3 torn dried red chillies. Taste for salt.
The Great British Bake Off will fill your heads with visions of Chelsea buns and Hot cross buns and candied citrus. This is a great recipe. I’ve made this twice and I’m yet to make any chelsea buns but as an after dinner snack, mixed peel is delicious with some dark chocolate.
As usual- I went with the Alton Brown recipe. He asks you to peel the zest using a peeler. Other recipes use the whole peel – pith and all and have to boil the peel multiple times.
Step 1- When anyone at home eats an orange or uses a lime/lemon- peel the zest into long strips and store it in a ziplock bag in the freezer till you have enough. Make sure the family cooperates, threaten them with loss of all citrus fruit if they don’t
Step 2: Once you have the zest of 4-6 oranges and 1-3 lime/lemons- put them in a pan with 3 cups of water. Boil for 15 minutes and strain
Step 3: Next comes the candy making. Add enough water to cover the peels and add the same amount of sugar by volume and simmer away for an hour or two. Measure the temperature every 5 minutes or so and when it starts climbing over 212F- use a heat proof glove (sugar splatter will burn your skin right off) and measure the temperature every few minutes till it hits 250F (around hard ball stage)
Step4: Pour over a wire rack and seperate and dry for 24-48 hours. The candied peel is ready when it makes a shattering sound as you drop it (Mary Berry tests it like that). The syrup is delicious too in cocktails.
It’s easy to preserve ginger – blend it to a paste with water (my vitamix makes it easy) and freeze into tablespoon measures. Remove ginger cubes and store in a ziploc bag. It lasts for months without any flavor change at all. This new ice cube tray makes a slightly bigger portion. Ginger is one of the few foods that taste exactly the same fresh or frozen. Tamarind works well with the same treatment
ETA: works just as well with one dried lime (pierced) and I’ve started adding a tbsp of sugar in this chutney as well
I am Indian and I make many different kinds of chutneys and sauces with tomatoes.
This is my 15 min version
2 tbsp Olive oil, 1 tsp cumin seeds, asafetida pinch, 1 red chili- add one can of tomatoes blizted through the food processor with 3 cloves of garlic and 1 inch of ginger and half a preserved lemon. Cook for 15-20 min. Add 1 tsp cumin-coriander powder and 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar and salt to taste (it needs lots of salt). Cook till the tomatoes are shiny and glistening.
So very good ! The vinegar comes from ketchup recipes and the preserved lemon gives the chutney it’s sour fermented umami flavor
Add oil to a pan with the chillies, heat till you can smell the chillies. Toast the sesame seeds and coconut flakes till they just start to turn brown.
Add to a blender or food processor with the garlic (I used my trust Vitamix which makes micemeat of the sesame seeds)
Refrigerate for, oh I don’t know, several months? It never lasts that long in my house.
I was introduced to the idea of preserved lemons through a Moroccan recipe with whole preserved lemons. Preserved lemons are routinely used in India but as pickles – never cooked over heat directly.
My first attempt ended in failure, I used chilies and lemons and salt and had a horrid fungal growth within a week . For my next attempt I used whole lemons with salt as instructed without chilies and I kept off the fungus for a full 5 weeks.
My 3rd attempt (I am persistent) I went the Indian pickle route- I sliced the lemons into eights and I added turmeric with the salt. It worked, the preserved lemons stayed good for months. I now sometimes add whole spices, all-spice berries and peppercorns and dried red chilies etc to different batches and I refrigerate my preserved lemons.
I use these lemons in dals ( wonderful in dal-fry) and pastas. They are particularly good in cold pasta and couscous salads.
Meyer lemons work better than regular lemons. Limes work even better, the picture below is of preserved limes.
Recipe:
4-5 lemons or limes- preferably organic- washed and dried – they need to be dry, very very dry
Delhi Girl Meets Food 