Usha Bua believes that garlic chutney is good for her health. Belief and faith are as important as fact and medicine to the overall goodness of our being.
If garlic, has her eating more plan based food, which she does as a vegetarian, then who am I to question the science that might not find veracity behind the flawed studies cited to her about the curative powers of garlic.
Dr. Willet of Harvard School of Public Health often says that is spices, aromatics (garlic and such) and herbs, can get people eating mostly plant based diets, then go ahead and believe what you want to, and eat lots of good veggies, whole grains, legumes, pulses, and herbs and spices - and find yourself doing good to your body.
And so, this birthday of my beloved Bua (dad's cousin sister), I was on a mission to make her a jar of spicy and delicious garlic chutney.
When I think of garlic, I think of deliciousness and bad breath - all at once. Not often does one find food cooked with mindful care where garlic adds its hefty depth of flavor, without being overpowering.
And so, when I think garlic, I think of heat, of aromatics, of spice and of every way I can have garlic adds its deeply rich savoriness without being the loudest ingredient in each bite of dish being savored.
So here I was beginning the chutney with dried Indian red chiles (chiles de arbol in Mexico or Akatogarashi in Japan). Long and a beautiful deep red.
For four heads of garlic, I took 3 cups of dried red chiles. Seeded them by taking off the stem side top of the chiles. Shake them to remove the seeds. Wear gloves and glasses if you want. They are hot. You will get burnt badly without gloves. Handling chiles is not for everyone. Especially if one does not expose themselves to them often.
Soak the chiles in water to cover them entirely for about 5-8 hours. Set aside until ready to use.
I was thinking rich colorful earthy tones and of course I had dried berries and fruits in my head. Here I used a mix of cranberries, strawberries and blueberries. 1/3 cup of berries soaked in boiling hot water and set aside for use later. You can do this at the same time you soak the chiles. One can also use golden raisins and get even a brighter colored chutney. I use dried fruits for sweetness and for texture.
When ready to make the chutney, first, and whilst wearing glasses or shades, drain the chiles into the sink. Even hours later the gas of the chiles was tickling Smita and my nose, making us cough, and itching our eyes.
Both doggies went out of the kitchen and were wimpering. This chutney is not for sissies or the faint of heart.
In a non-reactive pan, heavy bottomed preferably, place your garlic cloves, curry leaves, and ginger (about a 3 inch knob). Then add the coriander seeds, whole black peppercorn. and fennel into the pan. Turn the gas on and begin dry roasting the ingredients.
Roast till the garlic is giving outs its savory rich aroma and is blistered and colored a tad darker than you began with on all sides. The curry leaves ought to be crisp and dry and breaking apart. The coriander seeds, fennel and peppercorn should be scenting the kitchen with their scent and doing a happy dance. The ginger should be darker on all sides.
Cook the chiles with the garlic until they are dry and crisp again. The moisture from the soaking should be dried out. You will feel an itch in your nose and a burn in your eyes whilst doing this. Wear glasses and be careful.
Add the soaked berries/raisins to the pan. Cook them until the moisture from their soaking is dried out.
In a heavy duty blender (like Vita Mix), blend the contents of the pan into a smooth puree. Do NOT add any water. The lack of moisture will keep the chutney good for longer periods of time.
In the same pan from before, add some oil into which add some brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and heeng, Cook the spices until the mustard begins to pop and dance and the cumin is golden and the heeng (asafetida) is scenting the kitchen with its deep musty and heady aroma.
To the bloomed spices add 1/3 cup of tomato puree (from very ripe tomatoes, or a good quality purely tomato sauce). Cook until the moisture from the tomatoes is dried out and the tomato sauce is nice and jammy and sticky.
Add the garlic-chile paste into the pan with the jammy tomato sauce. Add some Sambaar powder and some Maldon salt (or Kosher salt, or any sea salt you use).
Cook the contents of the pan for 5-7 minutes until the chutney is nice and sticky. The flavors should all be melded well. Nothing should be overwhelming. Maybe the heat of the chiles, might be a tad much for some. But the garlic should be just fine. Taste of salt. If you taste too much of any one thing, often it is the salt that is out of place.. too little or too much. You need fat and salt to carry flavor. So taste and taste with mindful presence. Not in a rush to finish a chore. Cooking is the act of feeding our mind, bodies and souls. No act ought to be more revered, appreciated and given time, than the act of cooking.
It should be second only to the act of eating together with family and friends.
We are what we eat, and so, cooking, eating and shopping for food, all ought to be moments that are given pride of place, and never looked at as a burden or a chore.
Usha Bua is a lady of immense wisdom and grace. A woman of commanding beauty inside and out. She is a gifted woman in all the talents one can imagine a well rounded person to have. Hers is beauty that is nurturing and not merely fleeting. It is beauty that is the kind, we look for in fruits and veggies we pickle. Not of the merely physical type that can be tasteless and hollow in flesh and deeper, but of the deeply delicious and correctly seasonal, ripe and mature fashion - that we deem worthy of our investing time to preserve.
It is not surprising then that it was Usha Bua who bought out my desire to speak about the fiction around garlic and how it really isn't all that it is made out to be around its curative powers.
But when eaten as Usha Bua does, to round off a veritable feast of plant forward cuisine, garlic is a wonderful agent of mindfulness and healthy living, if it is this flavor booster that makes one eat a wholesome meal daily.
Truth is, that neither garlic, nor tomatoes or eggplants or cumin, or asafetida or berries or any one ingredient, is bestowed with the power to change the course of our ailments, or reverse diabetes, correct hypertension, or be the medicine for anything that ails us. But if plant based ingredients, spices and fruits and veggies, and the fables they come with, make us eat more plant based foods, then they are doing something good for us.
This chutney, made for my darling Bua, is deeply delicious. It is also to be eaten in small quantities. It is not overwhelming in its garlic assault, but on the contrary, for as much garlic as it has, it is rather subtle. That is the idea of good cooking. That flavors need to be in harmony and sink.
The heat of the chiles will keep you from over indulging, which will in turn keep you from sweating out garlic through your pores and be unworthy of those mood altering kisses you might be chasing.
Moderation is always the key. This chutney is testament to that.
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