Recipe: Red Grape Chutney 

Yep, the very same red grapes that one associates with red wine. I made a chutney of them. The idea, I must confess came from other friend(s) who promptly came up with a dozen different things one could do with these red grapes.

Why did I even ask you say?

Coz they turned sour, that’s why. I am a bit of a picky nut that way. I like my grapes sweet. I love teh champagne ones, the tiny seedless ones in yogurt rice or for stuffing my mouth with them coz that many can actually fit in! I love the green ones more than the red though. The red’s skin can get hardy. The kids love it coz it makes for an easy quick snack, and I also recently found that they are low in the glycemic index, so double yay indeed for these cute things.

So we had a box of grapes and I had conveniently forgotten to store them away the night we bought them, so well, the next day they sadly turned a wee bit sour. Did I tell you I was picky about grapes being sour? So in my book they were either sweet or sour, no matter HOW sour. So, they were sour and I got all sad. That was a nice 2 pound box and I was feeling hugely guilty getting rid of them. So I did the next best thing and turned to the crowds fo help, and help they did.

I got answers from Grape Thokku/Chutney, to Grape pie, to yes, red wine. :!

So, I defaulted and my eyes went all sparkly at the thought of chutney!

Then I said, wait, if cranberries could be made into a chutney, how far can red grapes be behind? So off I went. Chopped them up into halves coz these were large and also the skin was tad thick.

..and I got the stove on, and hey, presto, this is how the chutney turned.

It was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!

The girlfriend came over and she took some home and later texted that it was close to heaven. 😉

Now, with such a glowing compliment, I think I liked it even more and promptly ate a bucket of rice with it. :/

Anyways, you want recipe?

Never mind the picture below. As yummy as it tastes, you know compotes and chutneys and the likes are so horribly NOT photogenic and this is all that I could do! :-))

Here you go:

• I filled to the brim of a corning bowl with cut grapes.
• Then in a saucepan, added some oil, some hing and mustard seeds and let it splutter on medium.
• Added the washed grapes, a wee bit of salt, and some water, shut it and let it cook.
• It can cook a good 30 minutes.
• Kept stirring it occasionally so it wouldn’t stick, and ultimately it became a fine squishy mush.
• Added some more salt, and let it mix and cool well.
• In a separate pan, dry roast 1/5 tsp of methi seeds, 1 tsp of mustard seeds and 2 red chillies, for a few minutes till u can smell the heat. (if your grapes are REALLY sour, then up the chilli level or increase mustard heat, salt will go up too)
• Cool and grind to a (not too fine) powder.
• Mix this with the chutney and let it soak in. After one night, the spices blend in well, and the taste comes together nicely. Goes great with rice and rotis.

The taste is spicy, tangy, sweet and frankly, I was super thrilled and happy I found another fruit/vegetable that we can make into a fine pachhadi/thokku/chutney.

Enjoy!

If you do try, come back and let me know and we can both hold hands and jump with joy. 😉