Apple chutney

I remember being raised in the beautiful lush green mountains of the Kumaon region. The beautiful valley of Nainital, Uttarakhand it is home 🏠 to a variety of fruit 🍓🍑. 

The canning and fruit preservation center"Frutage " is an initiative of the 

Uttrakhand Govt to  help the local farmers

 to earn a decent living. They make the most delicious fruit jams, juices, pickles, and can 🥫 fruits .

I loved their apple 🍎🍏 Chutney.

My grandmother often tried out some of their recipes, she neatly documented,each recipe with footnotes of spices she tried, some anecdotes and stories that went when trying these out.

As a young woman I had no time to experiment with cooking,my career and raising up a kid kept me busy. I was more interested in a one 🍯 meal.

After I retired I found ample time and I decided to pull out the recipe book,now in tatters with faded ink, with a blurr , I had to put two and two together to figure out what could have been written there.

I am sharing my favourite recipe of Chutney, with my own variation.

Ingredients:

•  Apples 1 kg
• Sugar 3/4  cup
• Salt to taste
• chilly powder to taste
• a pinch of asafoetida
• 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp of Fenugreek seeds
• Ginger garlic paste (optional)
• Lemon juice,  orange juice or vinegar
• Two to three tsp of cooking oil

Method:

• Heat a pan
• Add oil
• Add mustard seeds and Fenugreek seeds let them splutter
• Add asafoetida
• Fry ginger garlic paste
• Now add peeled diced apples
• Season with salt
• Add sugar as per your taste
• Cook for 5_10 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Keep mashing apples with the back of the laddle.
• Now add lemon juice , Orange juice or vinegar
• Adjust the salt, sugar and chilly according to your tastebuds.

Cool and bottle.

Will keep on the dining table for a week.you can refrigate upto six weeks.

Enjoy with poori,paranthe,dal chawal.

Note: I have tried the same recipe with peaches 🍑 and apricots too.

Happy cooking.