Cilantro Chutney (an herb sauce)

Some yeas ago, Edward Hamann, a culinary expert on food from the Asian subcontinent and a wonderful cooking instructor who is now at Sur La Table, taught a small group of us how to make his fabulous Fresh Cilantro Chutney (Dhaniya ki Chatni ).  I started with his amazing recipe, added turmeric, black pepper, and made a few other minor changes, and that’s how this Cilantro Sauce recipe came to be.

This delicious sauce transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary – and it’s easy to make. We love it! For a while this sauce was the new “ketchup” at our house. I served it with everything from scrambled eggs to pan fried fish, and, of course, curries. In fact, it was this Cilantro Chutney that made me want to learn more about herb sauces and led me to create the other herb/vegetable sauces on this blog: Charmoula, Arugula Pesto, and Artichoke Lemon Pesto.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
¾ cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon peeled and roughly chopped fresh ginger
4 cloves peeled garlic
2 Serrano peppers, stemmed and roughly chopped, including some of the seeds
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ – ½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
3 bunches (about 7/8 pound) fresh cilantro, including all but the very ends of the stems

Note: I like to add dry ground or finely chopped fresh turmeric (and freshly ground black pepper) wherever I can get away with it. It’s so healthy! Adding 2 teaspoons of ground turmeric to this recipe does not negatively affect the taste, in fact you hardly even notice the turmeric, so why not add it?!

DIRECTIONS

Food processor

Add all the ingredients to the food processor fitted with the metal blade and process to desired consistency.

Blender

Place the ingredients into a blender – in the order given above — but do not put all of the cilantro into the blender at one time. Blend and then add more cilantro and blend again. If needed, stop the blender; push the cilantro down toward the blade; then place the cover on the blender and blend until a lovely smooth sauce results.

HOW TO STORE

• Store in the refrigerator for a few days

• Freeze in 100% food grade silicone muffin pans. When frozen, just pop the frozen “muffins” out, and place them in a plastic freezer bag; store in the  freezer for use anytime.

A FEW OF THE MANY WAYS YOU CAN USE THIS CHUTNEY (SAUCE)…

• Use as a condiment to liven up almost everything, including fish, chicken, eggs, or tofu.
• Use as a hot or cold sauce to go with almost everything.
• Mix with ripe avocado to make a lovely dip or spread. I just put some of this Cilantro Sauce-avocado mixture on slices of daikon and it was fabulous. The next time I need to bring an appetizer to someone’s party, this is what I plan to bring – it’s delicious and a great conversation starter too!
• Sauté any vegetable in olive oil and mix some of this sauce in at the end.
• By the way, I just mixed some of this sauce with some sautéed greens. Superb!
• Add to soups — bean soups, chicken soups, vegetable soups, fish soups.
• Add olive oil to make this sauce into a salad dressing!

TURMERIC & BLACK PEPPER: Tomato & Onion Chutney Flavor Cubes

Why turmeric and black pepper?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, turmeric and black pepper are a great cancer fighting combo.

After reading over my earlier post on turmeric and black pepper, I realized that it probably sounds complicated. So I asked myself how to simplify the preparation that I described earlier and here’s what I came up with:

1. Make plain scrambled eggs.
2. Make plenty of the chutney — all at one time.
3. Freeze the chutney in small batches for later use.

Then when you make scrambled eggs all you have to do is defrost a few flavor cubes to go with your eggs!

So…here’s a generic recipe for a healthy tomato and onion chutney — very much like the one I described in the previous post about turmeric and black pepper (only I like this version a little better). And by the way, this recipe is nothing new. In Indian and Pakistani cuisines, versions of this chutney have been around for ages.

TOMATO & ONION CHUTNEY FLAVOR CUBES

Ingredients

2 tablespoons canola or olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped
2-4 green chilies, very thinly sliced
2 teaspoons canola or olive oil
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 heaping teaspoon of turmeric
½ teaspoon ground cumin
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
A little salt, to taste
Fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions

Heat the 2 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy skilled over medium heat. When the oil is warm, add the onions to the pan and sauté them until they are lightly brown.

–A large skillet is recommended so that the onions can cook evenly and not sit on top of one another which would make them steam instead of brown.

When the onions are slightly brown, add the tomatoes and green chiles; mix. Stir occasionally until the tomatoes become soft and mushy.

In a small non-stick skillet, over medium heat, heat the 2 teaspoons of oil until warm. Add the cumin seeds and watch carefully. When the cumin seeds just start to turn a little browner, grab your spatula (a silicone one is great) and scrape the spice mixture into the pan with the onion mixture; stir to mix.

Add the  turmeric, ground cumin, black pepper and salt  to the onion mixture; stir and continue cooking on medium-low heat for a few minutes to let the flavors meld.

Mix in the chopped cilantro.
–Or leave the cilantro out and add it later to the defrosted the frozen chutney.

What to serve with this chutney?

Everything…almost…
Scrambled eggs
Chicken
Fish
Cooked grains (rice, wheat berries, quinoa, etc.) – just mix the chutney in or serve alongside the cooked grains
Potatoes
Beans

How to freeze the chutney

Fill the muffin pockets of a silicone muffin “tin” (mini or regular sized silicone muffin tin) with the cooked mixture; freeze; pop the frozen “muffins” out of the muffin tin and place them in a ziplock bag (the kind that’s made for the freezer).

If you don’t have a silicone muffn tin, you can use a metal one following the procedure given in the earlier post about basil pesto.

Enjoy and be healthy,

Leni

TURMERIC & BLACK PEPPER: Frittata

Here’s my recipe for a delicious egg and vegetable “frittata” that features turmeric and black pepper, plus lots of veggies.

EGG AND VEGETABLE “FRITTATA”

Ingredients (This is what I had on hand this morning):

–a container (still frozen) of Kirkland Real Egg Product (made with 99% pure egg whites)
–eggs (cage-free, omega-3 eggs from Whole Foods)
–6 cherry tomatoes from our garden, sliced in half
–1 red onion, chopped
–1 bunch organic green onions, green part only, cut into small pieces
–canola oil or olive oil
– ~1 teaspoon turmeric (a yellow/orange powder) from Penzey’s Spices

Why turmeric?

–freshly ground black pepper
–1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

Here’s how I made an Egg and Vegetable ‘Frittata’ this morning:

Because I forgot to defrost the Kirkland Real Egg Product, I put it into the microwave for 6 minutes on power level 2. Then I shook it vigorously and put it back into the microwave for 4 minutes on power level 2.  I continued heating it on power level 2 and shaking it until it was defrosted (or almost so).
–Note: I had previously cut open an empty Kirkland Real Egg Product container to check if there was any metal in the container’s lining and found none.

While defrosting the Kirkland Egg Product, I sautéd the red onion in a little canola oil, on medium heat in a medium size sauté pan, stirring the onions occasionally using 2 silicone spatulas (which I love because I can use them for so many things in the kitchen).

When the onions were halfway cooked, I added the tomatoes to the onions. I let the mixture cook until the tomatoes softened; stirring occasionally. When the tomatoes were soft, I turned off the heat and removed the pan from the burner.

I put a small high quality (!) non-stick omelet pan on another burner and added a few teaspoons of oil. Over medium heat, I heated the oil and then added the green onions, and sauted them until they began to wilt. When they were wilted, I added them to the pan with the red onions and tomatoes and mixed all the sauted veggies together. Then I sprinkled the veggies liberally with freshly ground black pepper.

Next I took a second small high quality (!) non-stick omelet pan and put that on another burner over medium low heat. I added a few teaspoons of oil to that pan and when the oil is warm/hot, I added the cumin seeds and let them warm up for about 15 seconds (don’t let them brown) and then I added the turmeric for a few seconds. Then I immediately scraped this spice mixture into the onion and tomato mixture and mixed it all around.

We’re almost there…  I know it seems like a lot of work…but this makes a great breakfast (or a nice lunch) for a few days!

Next I took the defrosted Kirkland Egg Product and mixed it, using a whisk, with the fresh eggs. Since I’m making enough for a few days for my family, I used about 6 eggs and about ¾ of the carton of the Kirkland Egg Product.

Now to cook the eggs…

I put the 2 non-stick pans that are empty and already slightly greased (because they’ve been used to cook the green onions and sauté the cumin and turmeric) on two burners over medium heat. When warm, I poured half of the egg mixture into each of the pans. I let that sit for about a minute (maybe less, depending on how hot the pan was to start with), and then I added half of the sauted veggie mixture from each of the pans to each of the eggs mixtures and stirred it around with a silicone spatula. I kept stirring and also flipping the cooking egg-veggie mixture until it was all cooked.

Note: I didn’t add salt, but each person can sprinkle a little on top of each portion, if desired.

NON-STICK PANS?

In the book, Anti-Cancer, Dr. Servan Schreiber recommends that you use “flawless Teflon, or else non-Teflon pans, such as stainless steel 18/10” instead of using “scratched Teflon pans.” (page 6 and 7 of the center insert in the book).

P.S.  After putting this post up, I wrote the post which covers just how to make the Turmeric and Black Pepper Onion and Tomato Chutney, and also how to freeze it for use later.

Enjoy and be healthy,

Leni