A Recipe to "Trick White People"

Merlin often finds something that is being marketed to the general public as being Indian inspired, or something South Asian when in fact it barely is recognizable to a guy who spent the first 27 years of his life there! He calls it "tricking white people" who will buy in to anything Asian these days. We see it with clothing....little dresses that can be fit 5 different ways proudly being sold by an Indian with a Made In India tag on it....yet it is nothing any Indian would ever wear. Going to an Indian restaurant to find samosa's called Beggar's Purses....say what??? Again...tricking people. Or one of my favorite the papadam that is brought with a nice chutney as a free appetizer at the beginning of a meal. I found out how that is really eaten on my first trip to India....taken in hand and crushed and put over rice....not a snack with chutney before the meal....again Merlin thinks tricking people.

Then I found a recipe and Merlin thought it was strange but I was in a canning frenzy since fall is almost upon us and I want to put as much away for winter use as I can. I borrowed a few books from the local library and found a recipe for Indian fruit chutney. True, the only time we use it is when we are serving Indian appetizers but I figured it was worth a try. When Merlin looked in to my boiling pot of fruit and pointed out all the strange things I had put in it....raisins, orange, lemon, lime....he once again claimed it was a recipe to "fool white people" in to thinking it was Indian. I will say it seemed like a strange list of ingredients but....a big but I think it is a tamarind knock off. Tamarind is non-existent here unless you buy something off the shelf that was shipped from Asia possibly several months ago or more. This chutney is sweet yet tangy with a little heat. We popped the bottle open at work for a samosa party and everyone was very impressed. I think I was the most impressed since I was serving something I hadn't tried yet, which could have been disastrous.

So even though some things do fool us, and even more are marketed toward us, this little jar of fruit chutney tasted great and was something I made with foods I have access to. I may even fool Merlin and decide to make some more and put away in our pantry shelf!

Taken from The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. Page 208, Indian Chutney.

1 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 medium orange, peeled and chopped
1 medium lemon, peeled and chopped
1 lime, peeled and chopped
1 each brown sugar AND molasses
1/4 cup finely chopped ginger root
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 TBSP mustard seeds
1/2 tsp hot pepper flaked AND cinnamon
1/4 tsp each ground cloves AND allspice
1/8 tsp red chili powder

1. Combine everything minus the spices in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently for 30 mins or until fruit is tender and mixture is thickened, stirring occasionally. Add spices and boil gently for 5 mins.

2. Remove hot jars from canner and ladle chutney into jars with 1/2 inch of head space. Process 10 mins for half pint jars and 15 mins for pint jars.

Makes 3 cups.

Try it and dare to be fooled in this tamarind knock off chutney!