Pickle and Chutney

The end of January 2019 saw me play in a Demolition Derby of a Darts match in a quiet old mill town. The form I displayed was shocking but the company was more important than the quality of my play. 

On my return home I plumped for a spot of Rush on the player in the shape of their breakthrough 1976 live album "All the World's A Stage". Although its predecessor, the magnificent "2112", is usually considered the band's breakthrough album, this record charted much higher on its debut and started the run of Rush albums debuting in the top thirty of the charts, a feat that they kept up for the majority of the remainder of their career. 

Not long before Christmas I had visited the local Gurkha Restaurant with some good friends to catch up with them before the festive season swallowed us. While there I noticed how delicious the restaurant's dips were; especially their Lime Pickle and Mango Chutney. That said I was inspired to make some of my own dips as an adjunct to a forthcoming trip to my house by my parents for a homemade curry.


The ingredients for the Lime Pickle were:

• 2 Limes.
• 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 teaspoons of Mustard Seeds.
• 3 Garlic Cloves chopped very finely. 
• 3 centimetre squared piece of Fresh Ginger peeled and finely chopped. 
• 2 teaspoons of Ground Cumin. 
• 2 teaspoons of Ground Coriander.
• 1 teaspoon of Chili Powder. 
• Three Ounces of Brown Sugar
• 2 tablespoons of White Wine Vinerar. 

The method was as follows:

• 1. Cut each lime in half and set to one side. 
• 2. Heat the Olive Oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the Mustard Seeds, the Garlic, Ginger, Cumin, Coriander and Chili Powder

• 3. Stir in the Limes, Sugar and White Wine Vinegar and squeeze out the juices of two of the limes.  
• 4. Bring to the ingredients to boil. then reduce to a low heat and simmer, stirring them occasionally, for fifteen minutes.  
• 5. Seal in a plastic container and put in the fridge for use as a side to the curry, specifically as a dip for poppadoms. 

I then prepared the Mango Chutney while to another Rush Live Album, this time 1981's Exit... Stage Left which the band recorded at a stage when they were starting to fill stadiums and had a number of hit albums under their belt. 

The ingredients for this Chutney were:

• 3 tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 2 large Mangoes, peeled and sliced thinly. 
• 2 cloves of Garlic, Peeled and thinly diced. 
• 3 tablespoons of Brown Sugar. 
• 1 Cooking Apple, peeled, cored and chopped. 
• 1 tablespoon of  Mustard Seeds
• 1 tablespoon of thinly diced fresh Ginger Root. 
• 2 tablespoons of White Wine Vinegar. 
• 1 tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper. 
• The juice of 1 and a half Lemons. 

• 0.2  litres of Water

The method was: 

• 1. Place the Garlic pieces, Brown Sugar, Apple, Olive Oil, Mustard Seeds, Ginger, White Wine Vinegar and Cayenne Pepper in a sauce pan and, over a low heat, dissolve the Brown Sugar into the rest of the mixture.
• 
  
• 2. Bring to the boil and add the mangoes and the water. Simmer for half an hour. 

3. Take off the heat and pour the contents into a blender. 

4. Blend the contents. 

5. Add to a plastic container, seal and put in the fridge for use as a side dish to a curry. 

The introduction of these dips to the curry with the parents took them out of there comfort zone and to a place where they found the dips added something extra to the Vegetarian Daal I had prepared for them. Indeed the dips tasted not too dissimilar to the ones I had enjoyed in the Gurkha Restaurant previously. 

The Dips plus a Fresh Mint and Plain Greek Yoghurt Dip