“The things we now esteem fixed shall, one by one, detach themselves, like ripe fruit, from our experience, and fall . . . The soul looketh steadily forwards, creating a world before her, leaving worlds behind her.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
FRUIT & CHEESE…one of my favourite combinations or magical partners! This was the best way to introduce my kids to fruit when they were young. Worked like magic! Cut to now; add some carbs & you end up with a well-balanced, delicious appetizer!
Entrees, appetizers, finger-food…a fascinating ‘cuisine course’ for me, largely unexplored. I always edge on the temptation of falling fall back on familiar ground when it comes to short eats. With blogging comes new energy, new ideas & loads of left-overs to experiment with. Have been exploring this finger-food front on & off. The potato canapes left me with a small amount of leftover cheese topping, & the fridge that was being cleared out, left me with a 1/4 jar of mango chutney & some pineapple slices. When we visited Chennai in the South of India in June this year, the son fell in love with pineapples. Arrrrgh…of all the tough fruits to fall in love with;what was wrong with a banana?So, the other day, I picked up this pineapple at the bazaar, & decided to tackle it. A picturesque fruit, beautiful to look a, however quite POKEY & hard-work!! For me, half the joy disappeared as it wasn’t too easy to cut the silly fruit. The angst was short lived; when you taste the juicy freshness of pineapple, life becomes worthwhile again. My Le Cordon Bleu Cook’s Bible sat next to me guiding me towards the how to cut this fruit! That achieved, I moved on to make some multi grain canapes. I rolled the multi grain slices as thin as I could with a rolling pin, then cut out 2″ circles with cookie cutters (of course, when I needed it most, the fluted cutter had done the disappearing act). Brushed them lightly with olive oil, & toasted them in the oven at 180 degrees C for about 10 minutes till they were nice & crisp. If you are short on time, you can use salted cookies instead like Monaco that we get here, or probably Saltines or something. That done, it was time for the toppings. I cut some cottage cheese with the same cookie cutter & sliced it finely to line some of the bases (you can also use cheese slice cut-outs instead).The cheese toppings are the left-over from my previous post. A blend of grated cottage-cheese, cheddar & a little low-fat cream, piped out over the fruit. Choices of toppings…hmmmmm…infinite. I’ve chosen fruit toppings, but use your imagination. Put on savoury stuff if you like…the sky’s the limit! I used apricot relishon some. It’s a great & versatile chutney that goes well with Indian food, with roasts, with grilled food, & on canapes. Line the base with a slice of cheese (optional), top with a teaspoon of relish, pipe some cream cheese over, grind pepper over the top…& you’re ready to roll!! Recipe for APRICOT RELISHhere.Another great combination is pineapple & cheese. Refreshing & delectable!
My third choice was mango chutney, which I was trying to finish up. It’s a finger-licking good relish, a recipe I got from Meeta @ What’s For Lunch Honey?You can find the recipe for MANGO CHUTNEYhere.
I did another a few days later just to see how a potato & corn salad in a garlic-sage butter would taste. What do you think? Mmmmmmmmmmm…fabulous!
A short while ago Kellypea @ Sass & Veracity was invited to participate as contributing writer for the fabulous Blissfully Domestic, & is also celebrating her 100,000th visitor to her very impressive blog. There’s a party on there, so I’m sending these delicious bites to Kellypea. Hope these bowl Gordon Ramsay over, Kellypea, sending him to ‘tastebud heaven’, & he doesn’t yell at me!!! LOL!!
“The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure”
Michel De Montaigne
Strange bedfellows one might say…cottage cheese, chicken & pomegranates. Common ground surprisingly exists in the form of Indian cuisine. The sun is blazing hot again & summer doesn’t want to go away. Grilling or barbequing food makes for lighter fare in this weather; is a big hit always. This is going to be part 1 of the post as my menu ran too long. I marinated cottage cheese / paneer cubes in 2 different marinades, boneless chicken bits in a creamy marinade. Decided to make some more leavened Indian bread (the third in the series I decided to try out in my lovely black box), had a delicious bowlful of dal makhani saved up from the previous day…& then made saffron kulfi to finish off the meal. PHEW…sounds like a long list, but was done in bits & bobs. And oh yes, forgot to mention the anaar ka sherbet / pomegranate cooler that I made too. That I did the previous day because I chanced upon some juicy pomegranates & couldn’t resist picking ’em up! Right then, here we go…
Paneer Tikka / Grilled Cottage Cheese
Ingredients:
Cottage cheese – 1 kg / cubed into 1″ chunks
Yogurt – 1 cup ; hung
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tbsps
Oil – 1 tbsp
Juice of 1 lime
Paprika for half & coriander/mint/green chili paste for the other
Whip the yogurt with ginger-garlic paste + oil + lime juice + salt.
Add paprika to 1/2, & coriander-mint-green chili paste to the other. ( I add some green chutney to save time; adjust the salt if you do so).
Leave to marinate for about 30 minutes (or more) in the fridge. Toss the veggies in a little olive oil.
Put all the above on a hot grill & turn to ensure all sides nicely browned. Sprinkle lightly with chaat masala if desired. Serve with a green chutney & lime wedges.
Skewer with the veggies serve immediately.
Note: Cottage cheese tends to get a bit hard if grilled & left for later. It tastes wonderful freshly grilled!
Here’s the ‘Chicken Malai Tikka’. Made with the recipe I found at Pearls of East @ ‘Any One Can Cook’. A yummy creamy chicken tikka…eat it right off the grill to enjoy the moist, rich flavours. The recipe can be found here. I marinated this overnight; just makes life a lot simpler the next day!!
And to cool off my frayed nerves after being far too ambitious, there was nothing better than a glass of chilled ‘anaar ka sherbet’. The grenadine or pomegranate concentrate can be made in advance & refrigerated. We had it diluted with icy water & a squeeze of lime. You can perk it up by adding some sparkling lime water to it; grenadine is a great base for cocktails, mocktails & desserts too. Quite easy to make… Anaar Sherbet / Pomegranate Cooler
Deseed 2 pomegranates. Put the seeds in a pan with 1 1/2 cups of water, add 8 tbsps sugar. Bring to a boil & simmer for 5 minutes till flesh is soft (will turn light pink). Cool & push the syrup through cheesecloth. Pour the concentrate into a bottle & refrigerate. Dilute as required & use as a base for a cooler.
Grenadineis traditionally a red syrup. It is used as an ingredient in cocktails, both for its flavor and to give a pink tinge to mixed drinks. “Grenadines” are also made by mixing the syrup with cold water in a glass or pitcher, sometimes with ice. The name “grenadine” comes from the French word grenade meaning pomegranate, as grenadine was originally prepared from pomegranate juice, cherry juice, and sugar.
The ‘khameeri roti’, or leavened flatbread, & ‘saffron kulfi’ recipe shall follow soon. The ‘dal makhani’ was the good old Jugalbandits recipe which I posted here!
This chutney is LONG overdue. On my last chutney post, way back in May, my sweet Greek friend Ivy @ Kopiaste had asked for a fruit chutney. With that in mind,
I bought some dried Turkish Apricots to make a fruit chutney for her; then life took off in some other direction.
The poor apricots sat silently in the corner of my cupboard lost in oblivion. I tripped across the poor mites day before, & put making this chutney on priority. At that time, Ivy said of my green chutney…”This sounds lovely. This is something I would like to try when and if I find fresh coriander. Thanks for explaining what chutney means. Please post a fruit chutney.”
I’m sorry it’s taken me this long Ivy…but better late than never I guess! This one’s for you!!
Chutney is a term for a variety of sweet and spicy condiments, usually involving a fresh, chopped primary vegetable or fruit with added seasonings. Chutney, as a genre, is often similar to the Indian pickle and the salsa of Latin American cuisine, or European relish. Chutney is more familiar in North America and Europe in a form that can be stored. To this end, vegetable oil, vinegar, or lemon juice are used to enhance the keeping properties.
Chutney is a delectable accompaniment to roasted and grilled meats, fish and Indian curry dishes. Delicious on a cracker with hard or soft cheeses. Ideal as a marinade for the grill. Although chutney is most widely known as a condiment originating in India, the concept has spread worldwide and mutated to suit local needs. The term chutney that comes from the East Indian Chatni, meaning “strongly spiced”, and is described as a condiment which usually consists of a mix of chopped fruits, vinegar, spices and sugar cooked into a chunky spread.
Apricot Chutney (Khubaniki Chutney) Ingredients: Dried Apricots – 200gms; soaked overnight in 1 cup of water (soaking is optional) Golden raisins – 1/4 cup (chopped) Water – 1/4 cup Garammasala – 1 tsp Brown sugar – 1/2 cup Ginger paste – 1 tsp Malt vinegar – 1 cup Roasted red chili flakes – 1/2 tsp Salt – 1 tsp Method:
Chop up the soaked apricots as fine or as chunky as you’d like your chutney to be.
Put all the ingredients into a medium saucepan and mix together thoroughly. (If you haven’t soaked the apricots overnight, add a cup of water)
Bring to boil, low the heat and simmer for 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When the chutney has thickened to a fairly thick consistency, transfer into a clean jam jar.
Allow to cool. Close the lid and store refrigerated.
Note: Chutneys are very accommodating! Eyeball amounts as you like. Add or omit ingredients as you desire. Keep the vinegar as it acts as a preservative. Orange zest, candied ginger, grated apples, cranberries, pepper…anything can be added. That’s the joy of chutney. Be sure to taste it all along…it’s very satisfying of course, addictive too, but goes on to tell you if you need to balance the sweetness etc!!
Serving suggestions : A perfect accompaniment to roasted / grilled meat and fish, game and curry dishes. Great as a marinade for grilling, or as a dip with tortilla chips. Delicious spread with hard or soft cheeses, petit four toppings etc.
“Chutney is marvelous. I’m mad about it. To me, it’s very imperial.”
Diana Vreeland (1903-1989)
GREEN WITH ENVY???
When we were young, we often heard the phrase, ‘Hurry up or Mom will make a chutney out of us’…often in a punishing way as many would say ‘making mincemeat of us’ in parallel tones! Times change, words change, Mom’s don’t & the grind continues …
Full of flavour…my favourite chutney!
Why am I on a ‘Chutney‘ trail? Susan from Food Bloggawrote in to me the other day asking me about chutneys from India, & if I had some favourite chutney posts she could link to? Surprisingly enough, I had made my fave chutney the previous day, but didn’t have time to blog about it. Reason…my dear little son decided to come down with chicken pox!! Both kids were vaccinated last year, & the doc said the chances were one in a million that they would get it…so the boy went on to prove the doc was quite right!! Misery reigns supreme in his life as of now, but should be OK in a couple of days…I told him to look at the brighter side; life long immunity! Meanwhile the daughter is treating him like plague & wiping clean every surface he even looks at…her friend in school taught her that!! I do feel like making a chutney out of her when she does that, colloquially of course!!Right, back to the chutney then…The Hindi word for “to crush” literally means “to make chutney.” This signifies the process by which chutney is made; often the ingredients are crushed together with a stone. It’s served as an accompaniment to finger food like vegetable pakodas/fritters, kebabs, samosas etc; or as an addition to the meal to add flavour. There are a zillion types of chutneys like green chutney, coconut chutney, tomato chutney, garlic chutney etc, & further, each region in India doing a variation of their own!
Packing a PUNCH!
The chutney I made uses fresh coriander & mint leaves, garlic, lime juice , green chilies & salt. Wonderful on flavour & tangy just as we like it. Very fresh for the summer when light eats & finger food make a lot of sense. I served ‘hara chicken kebabs’ with this chutney, where ‘hara‘ translates into the colour green. The kebabs were slightly greenish in hue because of similar flavours / ingredients running through them. Will post the kebabs sometime later…but soon because they were delicious, fabulous on flavour & ever so simple to make.
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My recipe for green chutney…
Ingredients:
Fresh coriander leaves – 1 nice big bunch
Fresh mint leaves – 1/2 the amount of coriander leaves
Garlic – 3-4 cloves (or increase this if you love garlic like me)
Green chilies – 1-2 (according to taste)
Juice of 3-4 limes
Salt to taste
Method:
Pick the coriander & mint leaves, wash them well & leave to drain in a colander.
Put a small amount in your grinder/blender/Osterizer, add the lime juice + garlic + chilies & grind to a paste.
Gradually add the rest of the leaves & continue to grind till it becomes a nice blended chutney. Add salt to taste. Transfer to a non-reactive / glass bowl & chill. ZATS IT!!
I grind my chutney only in lime juice so as not to dilute the tangy, lemony flavour.
Feel free to play around with ingredients according to your tastebuds. Drop the mint if you don’t have some; increase the chilies for HOT HOT HOT fun!
This is finger licking good & is great served with chicken kebabs below,
OR bite sized kebabs, either made into small balls & shallow fried, or cut into bite-sized pieces,OR, served inside a wrap as a dressing for the kebab! “When life seems just a dreary grind; and things seem fated to annoy;
say something nice to someone else and watch the world light up with joy.
Author Unknown
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