Strawberry Balsamic Chutney

 

 Our friend Nick is a local caterer and he delighted us at a recent event with a delicious appetizer. It was a crustini made from slices of toasted baguette with a smear of goat cheese topped with a balsamic strawberry chutney. I couldn't get enough! Luckily, Nick was kind enough to explain to me what it was and how he made it so now I have the skills to recreate it at home. We are only eating for two around here now that all the kids are away at school and college, so fortunately SP knows how to make lovely toasted baguette slices! 

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 shallot, chopped thinly

1 clove garlic, minced

1 large container strawberries, diced

2 teaspoons honey

pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon ground thyme

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

a couple of grinds of fresh black pepper 

2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

a couple of dashes or dribbles of Balsamic glaze

Process

1. In a medium pan, heat the olive oil over a low medium heat. 

2. Add the shallot and garlic and saute until soft  and not browned. 

3. Add the strawberries, honey, salt and spices and saute. 

4. You can turn the heat up a bit, and when softening,  start mashing with a potato masher.  

5. When it becomes one blended pot, add the vinegar and the glaze and simmer for a while on lower heat as it reduces just a bit. 

6. Remove from heat and spoon into a glass jar to cool in the fridge. 

7. Serve on crustini on top of a slathering of goat cheese.  Yum!

Old Farmhouse Chutney Cheeseball from Stonewall Kitchen

The Maine classic company, Stonewall Kitchen, never fails to make products and recipes that are enduring classics. This recipe is a yummy treat at all times of the year.

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup Stonewall Kitchen Old Farmhouse Chutney
• 1/4 cup scallion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• Dash of salt
• Dash of pepper
• 1/2 cup Colby cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Process

1. Mix together the cream cheese, chutney, scallion, garlic, salt and pepper. 
2. Fold in the Colby and Monterey Jack cheeses. 
3. Form the mixture into a ball. 
4. Roll the ball in the chopped pecans. 
5. Refrigerate to harden slightly. 
6. Serve with apple slices and crackers.

Chicken with Chutney

We were in Connecticut last weekend celebrating my brothers birthday. We stayed in Madison at my Dad's "Gal Pal" Susan's house. She cooked us this lovely chicken on Friday night. Shown by the state of the cards below, this is a well loved recipe. There is an error on the card - the author omitted the 1/2 cup of chutney that goes on it. I will write it into the recipe below, and add that as a garnish, Susan added water chestnuts and pecans for a little added crunch. Yummy dinner loved by the whole family.

Ingredients
 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup chutney (Major Greys or better)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon curry (or more)
1 lemon
freshly ground black pepper

Process
 1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Place chicken flat in oven dish.
3. Combine mayo and sour cream in a bowl.
4. Stir in the chutney and the curry.
5. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon.
6. Cover chicken with this mixture. If you are adding the water chestnuts or pecans add them here.  Season with pepper.
7. Bake for 20 minutes and Voila! Check meat with a thermometer to be sure it is at 170 degrees.

These pictures don't  do this recipe justice.
I hesitate to even put them on here, but darn, this is a really yummy meal.

HiHo's Sweet Tomato Chutney

This recipe is hands-down most nearest and dearest to my heart as the number one culinary memory of my mother. This chutney is a truly epic olfactory event. Hi-Ho used to make this as Christmas gifts. The recipe elicits a whole manner of bittersweet memories. I remember returning from school to a house filled with a mouth watering aroma, only to find Mom standing protectively over her bubbling blue LeCreuset filled with simmering heaven. I would risk a finger scalding taste any chance I had. This chutney is Hi-Ho's legacy. I love you and miss you and think of you any time this chutney is close to mind or hand.

In recent years, I gave in to my gnawing desire to have chutney with dinner, and stumbled upon a perfect accompaniment: Fondue. Heaven on earth for sure! Many people have eaten this chutney: at every Indian dinner in my house, every New Years on hot oil fried meat and even with a steak dinner.

The origin of this chutney is from the Madhur Jaffrey.





















Isn't she just the sweetest looking woman!? She totally reminds me of Mom. The best part though is how dog eared and stained the recipe page actually is. It is clearly the most actively used page in the book. I will never get rid of HiHo's note, reminding herself that she quadruples the recipe for Christmas.

















Typically, I only doubled the recipe making sure I yield enough to can. I love my magnetic lid remover!




























OK, enough rambling, and I will post the recipe, but please if you have eaten any of this chutney, please leave a comment!
To Hi-Ho! I love you Mom!

Ingredients

• 1 head garlic, peeled,coarsely chopped
• 1 piece fresh ginger, about 2 inches long,1 inch thick and 1 inch wide,peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
• 1 (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes (or 2 lbs fresh tomatoes if they taste like a tomato should)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/8-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (personal preference)
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons blanched slivered almonds

Directions

1. Put the chopped garlic, ginger and 1/2 cup of the vinegar into the container of an electric blender and blend at high speed until smooth.

2. In a 4-quart, heavy-bottomed pot with non-metallic finish, place the tomatoes and juice from the can, the rest of the vinegar, the sugar, salt and cayenne pepper (or, if you prefer, add the cayenne at the end, a little at a time, stirring and tasting as you do so).

3. Bring to a boil.

4. Add puree from blender.

5. Lower heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until chutney becomes thick.

6. Stir occasionally at first, and more frequently later as it thickens. (A film should cling to a spoon dipped in it.)

7. You may need to lower the heat as the liquid diminishes.

8. You should end up with 2 1/2 cups of chutney, and it should be atleast as thick as honey after it cools.

9. If the canned tomatoes you used have a lot of liquid in them, a longer cooking time may be required, resulting in a little less chutney.

10. Add the almonds and the raisins.

11. Simmer, stirring, another 5 minutes.

12. Turn heat off and allow to cool.

13. Bottle and Keep refrigerated. It last for years!

Chutney Dip served with Bugles

This was another recipe given to me at my bridal shower. However, the recipe was far from new to me on that day, for I had been eating this regularly since I was about the age of 8. Our next door neighbor, a wonderful grandmother from Canada, would serve this all the time, along with her regular teatime invites. I grew up playing with two of her granddaughters regularly. I don't think I have seen Bugles around much as of late. Are they even still made? Well here's a nod to Granny Boultbee, still going after 97 years! I miss you!!!

Ingredients
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chutney, chopped (use Major Grey's or half and half with Raffetto chutnut Colonial chutney)
3 Tablespoons minced green onion
1/2 teaspoon salt or less
pepper to taste

Process

1. Combine ingredients and blend thoroughly.
   
2. Put in refrigerator until chilled through.
   
3. Serve with Bugles for dipping.
   

Wanna-be Samosas

Last night was another refrigerator dinner night, so many odds and ends that could come together to make a yummy surprise. Well this night was inspired by a recipe from the Kiwi magazine that was called Curry Potato Puffs. I of course did not use the recipe for anything more than an "ah ha!" moment. I said, "Ah ha! I have puff pastry in the freezer and those look remarkably like Samosas!" I know when I started this blog I said I would not be adding any of the famous Indian recipes. That still holds true because this recipe was a first time creation, so enjoy the small peek into my Pakistani teachings! Well, my first ever journey down the culinary road of puff pastry (yes I have had it in the freezer for at least a year!) was a success. I hope you enjoy, particularly my lack of specifics about the pastry!

Ingredients
4 medium to large potatoes
3 carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces.
2 Tablespoons olive oil
One onion, peeled and chopped
1 Tablespoon + ground coriander
2 Tablespoons mild curry (if you cook Indian food like I do you have multiple types of curry. I made this for the children, so I chose a mild curry)
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1 pound ground beef (or any other but tonight I used beef)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese (because I had it left from another dinner)
2 sheets frozen puff pastry.
sides of chutneys or even Raita

Process

1. Unpack puff pastry and thaw side by side on cutting board on counter top.
   
2. Peel and halve potatoes and put them in a sauce pot of water over high heat. Add some pieces of carrots too. Bring to a boil.
   
3. Preheat oven 400 degrees.
4. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium to medium high heat.
   
5. Add chopped onion and saute until slightly translucent.
   
6. Add three spices and stir to mix well. Saute some more.
   
7. Add the ground meat to the skillet, breaking it up, and stirring to mix evenly.
   
8. Remove potatoes and carrots from boiling water and rinse with cold water to cool. Drain.
   
9. Stir meat mixture, reduce heat to medium low, and cook two minutes.
   
10. Dice the potato, and cut the carrots into round slices or half slices. Add to meat mixture and stir.
    
11. Season with dashes or grinds of salt and pepper.
12. Add milk and stir into mix, cooking for one minute. Remove from heat.
    
13. This is where I will get vague with you, because having never worked with puff pastry before, things didn't come out even. What you want to do is roll out each sheet and cut it into small 5" by 5" squares. I rolled mine too thin at times, so I caution against this. I think you want it rolled out only to half of it's original width. What ever size squares you get at that point, use them! :)
    
14. In the center of each square, place a couple/few heaping teaspoons of the meat mixture.
    
15. Using a basting brush, gently wet the edges of the square.
16. Grab one corner of the square, and bring it diagonally across the square tot he opposing side. Seal edges of now triangle together and press together to adhere. Your final product should be a triangular shape.
17. Place each samosa on an un-greased baking sheet.
    
18. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until browned on top. Serve with a chutney or pickle, I served with Mom's tomato chutney I will be making again in the months to come.