Chalta chutney

I may as well admit — despite the raised eyebrows that I am sure this statement is going to evoke in many parts of the east — that I have never ever been a part of a Saraswati Puja celebration. But I know one thing about this festival — a berry called kul is not to be eaten before the Puja earmarked for the goddess of learning. Legend has it that students who dare to eat kul before the Puja end up repeating their papers.

Now that Saraswati Puja is behind us, I have been looking at cartloads of kul being sold on the streets of Delhi with a benign eye. This is the time to eat all the kul that you want without fear of reprisal. You can have them raw or turn them into chutneys.

Topa kuler chutney

I love chutneys made with kul. In fact, I love chutneys of all kinds. Not just the sour, mostly vegetable-based chutneys that rest of India revels in but also the sweet and sour chutneys of the east. In Bengal, especially, the chutney occupies a prime spot on the banquet table. It’s not an accompanying side dish, as it is in many other parts of the country but a dish in itself. The chutney is the last course of the meal, to be eaten just before you dig into your bowl of sweets.

That there are all kinds of chutneys became clear to me when I broached the topic with foodie Anjan Chatterjee, the man behind the Oh! Calcutta and other restaurant chains. Chatterjee, I realised, is quite a chutney fiend. He promptly sent me recipes for various kinds of chutneys — including one using topa kul (the fat red berries with a sweet and pungent taste) and another with chalta, a sour fruit which is again a great favourite of easterners.

“Each of these Bengali chutneys has a different taste,” says Chatterjee. One kind, for instance, can be simply sweet, another can be sweet and sour, a third can be sweet, sour and hot, a fourth can be distinctly sour with just a hint of sweetness and so on.

A fruit like the green mango, for instance, can lead to various kinds of aamer chatni — or mango chutneys. It can be a thick grated chutney which is more sour than sweet, it can be a chutney in sugar syrup which is more sweet than sour, or it can be hot and sour, and flavoured with the aromas of panch phoron — the five-spice mix which no Bengali kitchen can be without. Or take the tomato — which again spawns various kinds of tometor chatni.

“I don’t think any part of India eats chutneys the way we do in Bengal,” says Chatterjee. “No Bengali meal is complete without the chutney,” he adds almost reverentially.

Tomato khejurer chutney

I agree. A few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s house for lunch — and on the menu was an eclectic mix of dishes. We ate some delicious pork chops and a wonderfully subtle but aromatic dish of steamed fish. But the hosts, who are Bengalis, made sure that the last course before the sweets was a dish of sweet and sour chutney — tomato khejurer chatni — prepared with tomatoes, dates and raisins.

Chatterjee stresses that chutneys work as a delicious digestive at the end of a meal. The sour element in the chutney, along with digestive aids such as ginger and cumin, helps the tummy settle down after a feast of various kinds of dishes cooked with vegetables, fish and meat.

I think it works as an effective palate cleanser too. Once you have gone through a regular Bengali feast — which starts with luchis and chholar dal and rice, fritters and veggies and then goes on to pulao with mutton and mustard fish, you need a palate cleanser before you accost the payesh and the sweets. And chutneys work rather well in removing traces of the fishy smell from your palate.

When I was a kid and my demands were few and basic, a homemade mango chutney (which was actually a preserve prepared with vinegar) kept me happy for days on end. Older and wiser now, I realise that the mango chutney of my childhood is just one of the many kinds of chutneys that can keep me happy. The mango chutney that made my knees go weak has a great many rivals, each more attractive than the other. And my knees, I can see, still go weak.       

Green papaya chutney (serves 2-3)

Ingredients

• 250g raw papaya • ½ cup sugar • 2 tsp lime juice • 1g citric acid • 10ml milk • salt to taste

Method:

Peel the raw papaya and discard the seeds. Finely slice and boil the pieces in water. When done, the pieces will be almost transparent. Drain the water and keep the papaya aside. Prepare sugar syrup in water. Add milk to the syrup. Add the papaya to the syrup and cook. Add the citric acid and cook till the syrup has reduced. When the syrup is thick, take the papaya out. Let it cool. Add the lime juice to the syrup. Put the papaya back in the syrup and mix.

Mango and grape chutney (aam angoorer chatni) (serves 2-3)

Ingredients

• 1 large green mango • 250g green grapes • 4 tbs mustard oil •2 cups water ½ cup sugar •1 tbs roasted powdered cumin • 1tbs mustard seeds • 1 tbs ginger paste • a pinch of turmeric

Method:

Peel and cut the mango into six pieces. Pressure-cook the mango for 10 minutes with a pinch of turmeric and salt. Take out the mango and discard the water. Heat oil in a pan. Add whole mustard seeds. When the seeds turn light brown and you get the aroma of frying seeds, add a little salt and the ginger paste. Stir for two minutes. Pour two cups of water and add the sugar. When the water boils, add the mango and the grapes. Simmer over medium heat till the sugar syrup is of the right consistency. Pour into a serving bowl. Add the powdered cumin.