It being that time of year, we’d hoped to bring you a recipe for Pan de Muerto, but we weren’t super happy with the recipe we tested. Maybe next year. Instead, we’ll have something completely different.
The other night we decided that we’d have something simple for dinner, something a bit lighter, yet something tasty. We’d had a larger breakfast out, and we just couldn’t face eating a large dinner, so we decided on Crispy Cauliflower Nuggets. With some sort of dipping sauce. We could have gone with something easy, such as chipotle mayonnaise, but we remembered this recipe we wanted to try.
It comes from Plants Taste Better, by Richard Buckley. Most of the recipes seem to be quite involved, but look wonderful. These are the type of dishes that you’d expect to see at a four- or five-star restaurant. Dishes such as Pistachio Pâté with Orange and Marjorum Salad and Carta di Musica. And, that’s just a salad. Fortunately, there were also some base recipes, such as this one, that seemed well within anyone’s skill level.
Sweet Tomato Chutney
Ingredients
- 3 g cumin seeds (1 1/2 tsp)
- 5 g smoked paprika (2 tsp)
- 5 g sea salt (1 tsp)
- 3 g fennel seeds (1 1/2 tsp)
- 25 g extra-virgin olive oil (5 tsp)
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 1 red chili, seeds removed and finely diced
- 10 g ginger, minced
- 1 clove garlic, smashed to a paste
- 14 ounces canned plum tomatoes
- 150 g brown sugar (3/4 cup, packed)
- 75 g red wine vinegar
Instructions
- Place cumin seeds in a medium saucepan over medium heat and toast until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
- Transfer seeds to a spice grinder and grind into a powder. Combine with smoked paprkia, salt, and fennel seeds in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat. Add shallot and fry until translucent, about 1 minute. Add red pepper, ginger, and garlic and fry for an additional minute.
- Stir in spice mixture, then add tomatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until tomatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.
- Add brown sugar and vinegar and continue to simmer until reduced and thickened, 45-60 minutes.
Ingredient discussion:
While we listed all the ingredients that the original recipe called for, we changed some of ours based on what we had available. So, it was about 1/4 cup of onions in place of the shallot, about 1/4 teaspoon of red chili flake in place of the red chili, and just regular, well, unsalted diced tomatoes in place of plum tomatoes.
Procedure in detail:
Toast cumin. Just as with nuts, toasting spices will bring out flavors. If you’re starting with cumin seeds anyway, it’s only an extra few minutes of effort. Simply place the seeds into the same saucepan you’ll use for the chutney, and set it over medium heat. No oil. Just seeds on the bottom of a dry saucepan. Shake or stir the seeds every once and awhile until they’re fragrant, about 3 minutes.
Grind cumin. If you have one, use a spice grinder to grind the cumin into a powder. Otherwise, a mortar and pestle will work. As a last resort, we’ve used the back of a spoon and a bowl, to crush the seeds somewhat. Whatever you can do will be okay. Even un-ground they’ll add flavor. Once ground, place the cumin in a small bowl along with the smoked paprika, salt, and fennel seeds.
Fry allium. Heat the oil over medium heat in the saucepan that you used to toast the cumin. Once hot, add the shallot, or, in our case since that’s what we had, the onion. Let fry until translucent; this should take about a minute if you’re using a shallot, but, with an onion, it’ll probably be closer to 5 minutes.
Add aromatics. Stir in the ginger, garlic, and red chili (or chili flake), and let fry for another minute or so. Make sure to stir from time to time, because you don’t want the garlic to burn, as burnt garlic isn’t all that tasty.
Add spice and tomatoes. Stir in the spice mixture you made earlier, followed by the tomatoes. Continue heating until the mixture comes to a bubbling simmer, then let simmer until the tomatoes are starting to break down and you have a somewhat thick sauce. About 20 minutes of simmering should be close.
Add brown sugar and vinegar. We pre-measured our sugar and vinegar into a measuring cup early on, so we didn’t have to worry about measuring later when we were busy with our dinner, but you do what works for you. Either way, add the brown sugar and vinegar, stir, and bring back to a simmer. Let the mixture simmer, stirring once and awhile, until the chutney is thick and somewhat glossy.
We used this chutney as a dipping sauce for our Crispy Cauliflower Nuggets and thought it was great. A bit spicy, a bit sweet, although not as sweet as we thought it would be, and a little tart. We packed the leftovers into a mason jar, figuring we’d definitely be eating this up in the future with other meals or snacks. We think it would be a great way to liven up a bit of cheese and crackers. Five stars.
