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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. 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.
  2. Coarsely chop the dates, making both lengthwise and crosswise cuts. Make sure there are no pits. Set aside for use in step 6.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Add to the blender jar: chopped ginger, salt, and ground hot red pepper. Cover, and blend for 1-2 minutes until smooth.
  6. 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.)
  7. 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.
  8. 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.


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