Green Chili Chutney

This is hot. You have been warned.

There's a typical Marathi chutney my mom makes that will absolutely enthrall your tastebuds.
It's a very simple yet spicy mixture of chili, garlic and cilantro that goes well with many old fashioned Indian meals. Back before I was born, many decades ago, when we were all farmers, a staple of the village diet was a type of coarse bread called bhakri. It goes by different names in different parts of India but it's essentially the same - an unleavened  coarse, flat roti made from millet and other seasonal grains. In its original form, it's hard, unsalted and what is most graciously described as 'wholesome'. The lack of flavor or dimension in bhakri is why Marathi farmers devised this chutney, which more than compensates for the bhakri. A great and simple lunch I've had numerous times in my childhood consists of a large 10" round bhakri with a dollop of ghee on it, a large tablespoon of this chutney and a glass of water. We'll cover bhakri in a later post but today, we're talking about green chili chutney.

Terminology Break: Chutney

First off, its not chut-knee. Its pronounced czut'-nee.

छटनी 

Second, chutneys can be spicy, sweet, sour even bitter - as long as it's bold. In India, there's a whole subculture for these accompaniments. Think of them as the sweet ketchup or tart pickles, beside your burger - they add a little bit of tang to every fifth bite or so. Actually, if you go back and study Ayurveda, the ancient Indian text on food (among other things), it teaches that each meal should consist of things that make you salivate - literally. Mouths tend to get accustomed to flavors and stop digesting food. Sometimes as we age, our ability or capacity to salivate diminishes leading to stomach problems. That's where pickles and chutneys and achars come in. They remind your mouth to start digesting, and in times of drought or famine they give something to look forward to in a meal that may only consist of water and bhakri. They should be eaten in moderation because they're usually quite high in sodium and the spice isn't all that great for you in large quantities. But as I tell everyone I know, I like my food spicy - It's gotta hurt going, It's gotta hurt going out. That's how I get my money's worth.

Ingredients:

1 lb Green and red Chilies
1 large head fresh Garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds (optional)
1/2" fresh ginger (optional)
1 tbsp Salt
2-3 tbsp Olive oil (or any mild flavored oil)
1-1.5 bunch chopped Cilantro

Time to cook:

Prep time - 5 minutes
Cooking time - 10 minutes

Process:

Slit peppers
Pan roast peppers
Blend everything in a blender until a coarse puree
Eat.

Start with chilies...

I like to rinse the chilies and pat them dry. If you care about pesticides and chemicals, you can use a vinegar and lemon juice wash; I have a post about that coming up soon.

As many Cincinnati residents probably know, Jungle Jim's has a wonderful bargain produce aisle where they stack the AARP vegetables that aren't plump and juicy anymore. Most Indian food stews the heck out of vegetables so even the most blemished of bell peppers or slimy of spinach ends up tasting just fine. (Think about that next time you plop saag paneer on your plate at your local Indian buffet). I picked up a pound of Serrano peppers at the bargain produce aisle for about $0.79. The good thing about aged peppers is that up to a point, ageing deepens and sharpens the spicy flavor. I like to use peppers when they're just beginning to shrink, like the front-most pepper in the picture above. 

In India we don't usually get Mexican Serranos. I like them better than the more slender Thai chills routinely used in south Asian cooking. Thai chilies are certainly hotter, but sometimes that drowns out other flavors. As an aside, the Serrano and the typical Indian or Thai chili are in fact, quite different in flavor, intensity, pepperyness, sweetness and texture. They also cook at different rates and age differently. But if your goal is to blow a small crater in your esophagus, its all good.  If you're interested in chilies check out my soon-to-come Chili post which I'll update every month or so with a new chili-based recipe to bring out that particular chili's unique flavor.

Heat up your pan. Stem and slit each chili down the middle. I rarely use a non-stick pan but I make an exception for this dish. Spray some olive oil on the pan - as little as you can to barely coat the surface. If you like, you can heat up some cumin seeds at this point. I like them but don't add more than 1 tsp. Once the oil is hot, toss in the dry chili peppers. The reason you want to minimize the oil in the pan is because the flavors are soluble in oil. Then when you pour everything into a blender you lose 1/3 of the oil stuck to the pan (that's why I use non stick this time). Roast the chills for about 10 minutes. Be careful not to stand too close, the peppers will squirt out a drop or two of very hot liquid every now and then. Once slightly browned on the outside, turn off the stove and let cool.

While all this is happening, get a WHOLE head of fresh garlic, peel and coarsely chop. Coarsely chop about 1/3 the volume of cilantro as you have chilies; use the stems. If you like, chop up a very small amount of peeled ginger (no more than 1/2"). Once cool, add the roasted chilies to your blender and blend everything together drizzling between 1-3 tablespoons of olive oil and about 1 tablespoon of salt until you get the consistency of chunky toothpaste. Add the salt while blending because its impossible to salt it homogeneously when done. You can store this in an airtight jar in the fridge for at least 6 months (I do).

I wouldn't recommend eating more than a tablespoon of this in one sitting.