Mike Wolfberg's Recipe for Majur Chutney - Date Chutney
This is one of a dozen recipes developed by Mike for a Concord/Carlisle
Massachusetts Newcomers Gourmet Group dinner which
took place on 1-Mar-75.
NOTE: A BLENDER IS NEEDED TO
PREPARE THIS RECIPE
(Approximate preparation time: 35 during 50 minutes)
- 1/2 c. water
- 1 1/2 oz. tamarind
- 12 Calavo or Sun Giant pitted dates (3 oz.)
- about 3/4 oz. fresh ginger root
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. ground hot red pepper
- Bring the water to a boil. Break the piece of tamarind
into several small pieces and put them into a small bowl. Add the boiling
water and poke the tamarind down to submerge it. Let it soak for 30
minutes while making further preparations.
- Coarsely chop the dates, making both lengthwise and
crosswise cuts. Make sure there are no pits. Set aside for use in step 6.
- Scrape or slice away the brown skin of the ginger root
and discard. Finely chop the ginger to yield 2 tsp., and set it aside for
use in step 5.
- Once the tamarind has soaked for at least 30 minutes
and softened, prepare tamarind "juice" by straining the tamarind
and it soaking liquid into a bowl through a food mill or fine sieve. If
you find any pits, discard them immediately. Press down on the stringy
pulp to extract as much as possible before discarding the pulp.
(You should be discarding very little pulp.) Place the juice into the jar
of an electric blender.
- Add to the blender jar: chopped ginger, salt, and
ground hot red pepper. Cover, and blend for 1-2 minutes until smooth.
- Stop the blender, scrape down the sides with a rubber
spatula, and add about half of the chopped dates. Cover and blend for
another 1-2 minutes. If the mixture is too thick to blend, add 1 tsp. of
water at a time, up to 1/4 c. and keep trying. (You may have to use the
spatula several times.)
- Repeat the previous step for the remainder of the
dates. Blend until the chutney is smooth, with no discernable pieces this
may take several minutes of blending and scraping down. (The chutney has
the appearance and consistency of apple butter.) This yields about 2/3 c.
of chutney.
- Place the chutney into an attractive small
(non-aluminum) serving dish, and cover it. There is no need to refrigerate
the dish when it is being served the same day.
To
serve: Stir the chutney and serve with a small spoon.