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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Spicy "Apple & Red Pepper" Chutney

Day3 of BM#10: A couple of months ago I took my son for apple picking. The orchards in Northeast were badly hit by a major hail storm  that happened a week prior. Almost 80% of the apples were badly bruised and had black spots on them. :-(. Inspite of hearing about it I went cause I felt bad for those Orchard owners. It was a big challenge to pick bruise-free apples.We came back home with a just a bag of apples instead of 3 or 4 which was the norm everytime we went for apple picking.

Here is what I did with those apples I brought home: I made some apple sauce which I used to make my Vegan Pumpkin apple muffins, then substitued apple filling instead of berries in Lattice-Topped Berry Tart I posted a few months ago. I still had a few leftovers out of which a couple ended up in this chutney- I frequently made mini pepper chutney as sides for Idli/Dosa this summer and wanted to add apples this time. The only change I had to make was to increase the amount of chilies to even out the sweet taste of apples. That's it!

MacIntosh Apple Tree at March Farms:These ripe red macIntosh apples on this tree miraculously espaced the hail storm.A few of those ended up in my bag that I brought home. :-):
Way3 To Maintain A Healthy Level of Insanity:  Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In Box." ;-)

What you need for the chutney:
Ingredients:
  • 2 Red MacIntosh Apples
  • 1 Medium Red Onion, peeled and cut into small chunks
  • 8-10 Mini Red Peppers, seeds and membranes removed
  • 1" Ginger, peeled and cut diced
  • 2 Small Cloves Garlic
  • Marble sized Tamarind, cleaned
  • 4-5 or less/more Dry Red Chili
  • 2 Green Chili
  • 2 Stalks Curry Leaves, stems removed
  • 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
For tempering(Optional):
  • 1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
  • 1 Tsp Split Black Gram/ Urad Dhal
  • 1 Stalk Curry Leaves
  • 1 Tsp Olive Oil
Procedure(Tried with yellow and red mini peppers. Using Red peppers alone gives that intense red color and the taste is much better than that of the Yellow + Red Pepper combo):
  • Add the Oil to a wide saute pan. Throw in the cut onions, garlic, ginger, red chili, green chili and curry leaves.Saute till the onions are browned.

  • Add the cut peppers and saute till they are browned at edges

  • Add the cut apples to the pan.
  • Saute till they are browned.The chutney tastes better if they are well and truly browned.
  • Add the tamarind at the very end. Switch off stove and sprinkle some salt.
  • Grind the whole contents and check for taste.
  • Move it to a serving bowl.Tempering is entirely optional.If opting, just fry the mustard seeds, Hing, urad dhal and curry leaves. Pour it over the chutney. I skipped it this time. Enjoy it with hot idli, dosa and such.
Enjoy!

14 comments:

  1. Wise use of apples, the chutney sounds great. I would have loved a tinge of cloves and cinnamon flavor too, what do you think?


    FOODELICIOUS

    EVENT FOR NOVEMBER & GIVEAWAY, ‘ONLY’- CURRIES

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  2. Those apples are so lovely CL..I still remember the first time I saw your pictures, they were taken in apple orchids..:)..lucky you guys..chutney sounds great..

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  3. Chutney looks so attractive in that bowl.Nice way to pair apple and bell peppers :)

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  4. Quite a new combo for me, apples in chutney i never thought of making though,thanks for sharing.

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  5. apple chutney sounds delcious..very new to me loved it

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  6. Looks like a lipsmacking one. I think I can go with Granny smith for this.

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