Chutney Kev !

I love making Chutneys. In essence you put some ingredients into a heavy bottomed pan, pour in some vinegar of any kind, a bit of brown sugar and then simmer until you have a nice thicken syrup of sweet and sour gold in which you can coat a burger or a bit of nice or not so nice cheese or even use it as a base for certain types of sauce depending on the type of chutney you have made.
I made some Aubergine Chutney yesterday and today I fancied something to nibble on that I could dollop some of the chutney on and as Uma Thurman still has that 10 mile restraining order on me it was never going to be her ear at any point today that was going to get nibbled. (or ever !) To be fair to Uma even if she had agreed to a nibble I don't think she would have appreciated me smearing chutney on her ear lobe ! Ok shut it down Kev this is getting a bit weird !! ha ha !

Aubergine Chutney

The Aubergine is not really going to float much flavour into a Chutney as it is pretty tasteless. I am using it mainly as a texture to the chutney and to use it as a vehicle for the the other flavours to soak into.
Into a heavy bottomed pan place 2 sliced chills, 3 finely sliced red onions, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, about 2 cm squared of grated fresh ginger, and 1 large diced Aubergine.

Now place 1 tbsp each of coriander, fenugreek, Cumin and mustard seeds into the pan. Next pour about 200 mls of White wine vinegar into the pan and about 4 tbsp of brown sugar. Put you lid on your pan and cook for about an hour. After the hour remove the lid and allow the mixture to reduce down to a nice thick sauce. Ready.

It should have a nice thick consistency.

The Nibble........Feta, Date and Sweetcorn Fritters.

I have mentioned on this blog before a great book called 'The Modern Pantry' by Anna Hamsen. It has some great recipes in it. Very Modern but sometimes a little ' out there !' on ingredients that Anna uses and not usually stocked at the local supermarket.  Things like ' Umeboshi Plum'  might as well be a Japanese Sumo wrestler or a Pokemon card character to the dizzy checkout teenager at the local supermarket when you ask if they stock it ! For your information and a thank you to Mr Po at the local takeaway they are salted Plum's ! he thinks !!!!
There are a lot of ingredients (mainly spices and herbs) that need collecting for most of the recipes in the book and therefore its more of a book of recipes that you plan to cook rather than pulling it out of the book case and deciding on what your having for your dinner tonight from it.
One of her recipes I have wanted to try for ages is for Feta, Date and Sweetcorn fritters. The list of ingredients resembles my nephew's Xmas list...very long !
However on close inspection I had a lot of the ingredients already in my store cupboard including chickpea flour which surprised me but a visit to the supermarket to buy fresh sweetcorn, dates and Feta cheese was in order !
Shopping done, its cooking time !
Again it looked really complicated with lots of prep to perform and not the sort of thing I really like to do at home. I am more of a one pot wonder kind of home cook ! ha ha !
Still I persevered and this is the method. I have modified the ingredients a little bit, call it creative licence if you will but getting hold of fresh curry leaves is quite hard sometimes !
In a pan sweat off 200 gms of sliced Red Onions, now add 1 tbsp of curry powder, 1 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp of cumin. Add half a fresh green chili and when soft set aside the contents of the pan to cool.

In a large mixing bowl place 140 gms of Chickpea flour, a quarter of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and the same in baking powder, 1 egg and 75 mls of milk. Mix until you have a smooth batter. Into the bowl place the sweated onion and chili mix. Now add 100 gms of crumbled feta cheese, 2 diced spring onions, 150 gms of sweetcorn. The recipe said 100 gms of finely chopped dates but I would in future add only 50 gms as it was a bit sweet for my liking. The recipe also said add 35 gms of polenta, a handful of chopped parsley and the same in coriander but I couldn't find the polenta in the supermarket and the other 2 ingredients I brought but forgot to put into the dish ! idiot ! Now mix the lot together until it resembles the picture below. Don't forget to season the mix.

A nice mix !

In a Fryer set at 180 degree's C drop little dollops of the mix into the hot oil being careful not to burn yourself. keep turning the fritters over and cook until they are lovely and golden. It will only take a few minutes. Drain them on kitchen roll and allow to cool slightly before stuffing them in your gob with a nice bit of the Aubergine chutney clinging to them !

These did take a bit longer to prepare than a normal dinner time treat. The sweetness was a little bit much for me as I don't really have a sweet tooth and I cannot help but think the coriander would have made a huge difference to the taste but they were truly blooming lovely and well worth the effort ! I had one for my supper as a midnight Scooby snack and they didn't appear as sweet when cold. I am not sure why. They would make a great buffet nibble at Xmas time too ! So I hope you give these little golden nuggets a try....enjoy !

Camera Wanderings......