The h2g2 Post Recipe
Created | Updated Mar 21, 2005
This week Master B goes hot!
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'Special' Indian Chutney
An absolute killer chutney for poppadoms. Not for the incautious, I warn you. I originally made this as something of a practical joke, but it turns out to be really quite tasty. And yes, the quantities on the ingredients list below are correct.
Ingredients (Makes a largish jarful)
- 10 large green chillies
- 4 limes
- Plenty of salt
- 6oz - 175g - sugar
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp tumeric
- ½ tsp asafoetida powder (take care - this stuff smells HORRIBLE uncooked!)
- Juice of 5 lemons
How To Do It
- The hard bit of making this is to take the bitterness out of the limes. The Indians do this by leaving them on a sunny windowsill for a couple of months, but this can't necessarily be relied on in temperate Europe, so I prefer the following method:
- Boil the limes in water for a couple of minutes.
- Wash and dry them. Cut each lime into quarters, place them in a shallow dish and sprinkle with lots of salt (at least a few ounces). Cover and leave in a cool place for 48 hours.
- Shake off any excess salt, cut each lime quarter into six strips and return to the dish. Cover with water and add the sugar to make a sugar syrup.
- Put the dish into a coolish oven (about 150°C) for 20 minutes, until the syrup has thickened and the limes are just starting to turn brown.
- Remove the heads from the chillies and chop them into slices about 1cm long.
- Roast the fenugreek, cumin and mustard seeds until the latter starts to pop. Add the other spices and the chillies and continue to fry for a couple of minutes. Allow to cool.
- Add the chillies with the spices to a clean, dry jar. Add the limes in their syrup and the lemon juice. Check that the liquid covers all the pieces of chilli and/or lime.
- Seal the jar and leave for at least 2 weeks, preferably on a sunny windowsill. Serve with poppadums or cold meat to brave people.
Next Time: Green Bean Bhaji
