Pachchai Milagai Elumichchai Chutney

When we intended to have a garden in our home in Coimbatore, we arranged with a landscape outfit to help us. Once we had put some plants and a small vegetable patch, we were enjoying some home grown beans, greens and few other vegetables. Soon we moved to a project in Qatar and hence hired a gardener to take care of the garden. Just before leaving home, while emptying stuff I dropped some chilli seeds from the pack of dry red chillis I had, in a small patch. Those have grown and were yielding when I visited last month. I plucked out about half of a kilo of green chillis.

After sharing some, I wanted to bring them and use here.
I shared some pictures on Instagram and took suggestions from friends on many ways to use them. Pickles seem to be a favourite. I made the milagai gojju and some pachchai milagai chutney.
While I spoke to my mother, she gave me this simple recipe for a chutney that did not need a curing period more than a couple of days. She suggested that if I had some limes in brine, they can be used for immediate use. Otherwise, it takes about three days when the lime pieces absorb the flavours and the chutney can be used.
This is a very simple recipe that can be combined in few minutes.

Pachchai Milagai Elumichchai Chutney
Makes about 150 ml

Ingredients:
30-35 fresh green chillis
6 small size limes
1/3 tablespoon salt (to be adjusted according to heat of the chillis)
1 teaspoon sugar

Method:
Wash the chillis and dry them on a towel. Remove their stalks.
Cut the limes and partly squeeze their juice into a bowl. Add the sugar and keep aside.
Cut the limes in small bits and mix the salt.
Blend the chillis in a blender to a smooth paste using the lime juice.
Transfer to the bowl and add the lime pieces to this.
Mix well and store in a clean glass or ceramic jar.
Keep the chutney at room temperature for a few days, giving it a stir twice or thrice a day.
In a couple of days, the lime bits will soften and lose any bitter taste.
The chutney is ready to serve.

This stays well at room temperature for about a week, in refrigeration for a month.
This can be served as pickle with rice or as chutneys with idli, dosai and such.

Notes:
If you have available some lime/lemon that has been cured in salt, you may substitute them for the lime bits. Thus, the chutney can be enjoyed immediately.
The heat and humidity in my country is high this summer that the chutney was fermenting by the fourth day even as the limes were still crunchy. I had to refrigerate the chutney then.

Fig Jam

My daughter has a small home garden that they tend with lot of care. They grow, in a small space, many rose plants, few vegetables according to the season and berries in their garden. The kitchen herbs are in small pots. They have cherries and figs all growing in small trees that may someday be really big and bear lot of fruits. She just sent me a picture of the lavender that she removed from the garden.

The fig tree is small yet there were many tiny figs that would be fruit by season. They were still raw when we left for home and have ripened recently.
She and her husband have been having smoothies and milk shakes with the fruits. She said she had just finished her lot of the strawberry jam and was looking to make some with the fresh figs. She sent me pictures and the recipe she followed and this post is about the jam she made with her homegrown figs.

I shall be excused for filling the post with more pictures than the recipe for I like the pictures she sent and do not know which of those to discard.

Fig Jam

(Recipe  and pictures from Niki, my daughter, given as received in my mail)

Ingredients:

20 medium sized figs

3/4 cup powdered jaggery

couple of pinches cinnamon

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tbsp butter

Method:

- Prepare a 1 pint jar for canning. Put it in hot water and keep warm.

- Put a ceramic plate in the freezer so that you might try the plate test when the jam is ready.

- Rinse and dry the figs.

- Slice the tops off and remove the peels. The peels give away a bitter taste unlike real ripe fruits we get in the market. If you may, go ahead and use the peel too.

- Pulp the figs (I just did this by mushing them with my hands) to a mush.

- Put them in a heavy bottom pan or a dutch oven and cook them on a medium flame for about 5 to 6 minutes with the lemon juice. 

- Add the jaggery all in one go, and the cinnamon and stir it in.

- Once the jaggery has dissolved, keep cooking till the jam comes together and plates well (about 40 minutes).

- Put the butter in and give it a quick stir.

- Pour the jam into already prepared/sterilized jar and let cool.

Yields 1 pint

She said that the jam had more sweetness and the hint of cinnamon was remarkably good. She felt that she did not taste the fig so much as she would like. Still, she said, the jam tasted good and was of nice spreadable consistency.