Chutney: how to learn to cook it before you learn to pronounce it

In this month’s ‘Yelowreceta’ Carlos Caballero shows us how to prepare this kind of jam in different ways: an ideal flavor bomb to accompany meat and fish.

We challenged our corporate chef Carlos Caballero to teach us how to make chutney in steps easier than those required to pronounce it, and this is what he told us:

What is chutney?

It is a sweet and sour condiment, a kind of jam made with fruits or vegetables cooked in vinegar, with very aromatic spices and sugar. It is a flavor bomb originally from India, where it is called chatni and means “to suck” in the sense of “to lick your fingers”, although there are also those who say it means “strong spices”.

We already know in a nutshell what it is, but how many types of chutney can be prepared? Giving an answer to this question would be like giving an answer to how many cloud shapes there are, it all depends on your imagination, since they are popularly made with garlic, apricot, coriander, coconut, lime, mango, apple, mint, orange, tamarind, tomato… But you can try with whatever you feel like!

In this post we are going to break down two of them, zucchini chutney and tomato chutney.

Zucchini chutney

The zucchini chutney is a delicacy that you can serve to your most demanding diners, highly flavored and with a spicy finish. It is very easy to prepare.

Ingredients

• 700 grams of zucchini
• 1 onion
• 200 grams of cava vinegar
• 100 grams of wine vinegar
• 4 cloves
• 1 tbsp ginger
• 1 tbsp curry
• 1 tbsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp chili pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 180 grams of brown sugar

Prepared by

Wash and dice the zucchini and julienne the onion. In a large saucepan put the vinegars on the fire, add all the spices, zucchini, onion and brown sugar, mix well and bring to a boil.

When it starts to boil, reduce to medium heat and simmer for 40-50 minutes, stirring from time to time, especially at the end when it starts to caramelize. Then we can grind the chutney to make it finer to the palate, although some of us prefer small pieces.

Allow to cool before placing the chutney in a sterilized jar. If you want to make preserves you already know that you must cook the jars in a bain-marie. Although with these quantities you will get enough zucchini chutney to be consumed in one or two weeks, which can be kept in the refrigerator.

Tomato chutney

For this chutney we also put everything from scratch to cook and once cooked we add fresh cilantro and onion. It is ideal to accompany some tempura avocados.

Ingredients

• 500 grams of pear tomatoes
• 100 grams of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
• 1 tablespoon raisins
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• A pinch of chili flakes
• 50 grams of red onion
• Fresh cilantro
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation

Peel and cut the tomatoes into medium pieces together with the vinegar, sugar, coriander seeds, raisins, mustard seeds and a pinch of chili flakes in a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.

Cook over low heat until a jam-like texture is achieved. Approximately 1 hour. Let cool, finely chop red onion and fresh cilantro to taste and add to the chutney.

Besides knowing what it is, you can prepare a chutney following this small guide, why don’t you try it and let us know how it goes?

We love it!