Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tomato Garlic Chutney

Posted by Erin Wilburn / 8 comments » / appetizers, csa, dips, festivals, Nashville

I don’t subscribe to Southern Living magazine, but I really enjoy reading it when I go to my parents’ house.  I think one of the things that sold me on the magazine, was it’s wide variety of articles, tips, and recipes.  You’d be surprised at what you’ll find.  Once, in an article on up and coming neighborhoods in the South, they featured East Nashville.  The area of Nashville known as East Nashville is a really hip, fun, neighborhood.  To see it featured in Southern Living made me proud!  It also showed that Southern Living is hipper than you might think.

My dad recently loaned me a Southern Living Secrets of the South’s Best Barbecue recipe book.  It just so happened that my wonderful CSA partner told me to just keep the whole box one weekend when she was out of town (getting ordained as an Episcopalian deacon!).  So I found myself with a whole container of beautiful plum tomatoes and wondered, “Oh, what to do?”  Somehow I ended up scanning the Southern Living cookbook, and found a Tomato Chutney recipe for which I already had every ingredient it called for.  I wasn’t quite sure what a chutney was, but I found the word fun to say.  It sounded very southern.  But ya know what, I don’t think it is very southern.  In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s Indian.  LOL  Nonetheless, this chutney was so easy to make.  The end result was rather tasty.  I just wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

As it turned out, the chutney was sort of the answer to the “What the hell am I going to do for dinner?”  One night it was served atop pork.  Another night atop chicken.  This chutney really came through on a couple dinner situations when I wasn’t inspired to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  Not to mention it was a great use for tomatoes and garlic we got in our CSA.

And now, to tie everything together… As I mentioned before, we love the diverse neighborhood of East Nashville.  One of our first experiences with the area was nearly 4 years ago, when we attended our first Tomato Art Festival.  Each year it’s grown into a bigger and better event; one we don’t intend to miss!  This year will be the 8th Annual event, so mark your calendars for August 13th.  Perhaps I’ll have another tomato related post, and tell you more reasons why we think this festival is fun, but this post is getting a bit long.  So, make some tomato art, make some tomato chutney, or at the very least, enjoy a Bloody Mary!  And now, for a little fashion fun from Tomato Art Fests past.

My first Tomato Art Fest, and my very first Bloody Mary.

 My second fest.

My third fest.  Sadly, no Bloody Mary in my hands yet.

Even more sadly is the fact that I didn’t make it out last year.  I can’t remember why exactly, but I think I was out of town, for a wedding maybe… My memory gets fuzzy in old age.  One thing is always for certain, I will be rocking the shades each & every year!  haha

Print

Tomato Garlic Chutney

Yield: 1 1/4 cups

Prep Time: 13 min

Cook Time: 8 min

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds, crushed
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chopped seeded plum tomato
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Combine first 3 ingredients, and cook over low heat 1 minute.

Stir in chopped plum tomato, curry powder, and salt; cook tomato mixture 8 minutes or until creamy, stirring occasionally. Store in refrigerator.