Green Grape Chutney

Start-of-season green grapes tend to be tart and work best when combined with other ingredients – a few grapes in fruit rabri, for example, or in fresh juice. A recent addition to my list of go-to recipes for sour grapes is this green grape chutney, flavored with Bengali panch phoron spice and fennel powder.

You Need:

• Green grapes – 200 grams
• Fennel powder (saunf powder) – 1/2 teaspoon
• Roasted cumin powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Jaggery – 1/2 tablespoon
• Salt – 1/3 teaspoon (adjust to taste)
• Red chili powder – 1/2 teaspoon
• Dry red chilies – 2
• Cinnamon – 1/2 inch stick
• Cloves – 3
• Cardamom – 1
• Panch phoron* – 1 teaspoon
• Oil – 1 tablespoon

*If you do not have panch phoron, use a mix of these whole spices, which you have on hand: fenugreek seed, nigella seed, cumin seed, mustard seed and fennel seed.

In the pic above (clockwise from top-left): green grapes; panch phoron; whole spices – cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, dry red chilies; fennel powder.

How To Make Green Grape Chutney:

Pluck the stems out of the grapes if any, and wash them well.

Break the dry red chilies into 3-4 pieces.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a kadhai or skillet.

To the hot oil, add the whole spices: cloves, cardamom, cinnamon stick.

Follow with panch phoron. When the fenugreek seeds in the panch phoron turns dark, add broken dry red chilies.

Stir around and add the green grapes.

Mix well. Set heat to low and cook covered for 10 minutes, stirring once in between.

After 10 minutes, the grapes would have softened and oozed out their juices.

At this stage, add the salt, jaggery and dry spice powders: roasted cumin powder, fennel powder, red chili powder.

Continue to cook covered, stirring periodically.

Let the grapes stew in their juices till the sauce begins to bubble thickly. The entire cooking time would be about 25-30 minutes.

Switch off the heat and let the grape chutney rest covered for another 10 minutes.

Serve green grape chutney warm or cold, on the side with bread and cheese.

Notes:

Try other fruit-based sides for an Indian meal: sweet mango chutney, apple chutney, sauteed pineapple with spices, papeeta chokha.