Wood Apple (कवठ - in Marathi) Chutney

Name – Wood Apple (or elephant-apple, monkey fruit or curd fruit and in Marathi - कवठ) Chutney / Souse

                                                        

Type:	Chutney / Souse	Cold	For: 16 persons	Process:   Pulping, Mashing, Grating, Mixing
Dietary Value:	Electrolytes and Iron (in Jaggery)	Beta-Carotene, B vitamins: Thiamine, Riboflavin, Vit C	Carbohydrates, Proteins (mainly Seeds)	Anti-Oxidants – Beta-Carotene  Fiber – Soluble and Insoluble
Time:	Preparation:	5 min	Serving:	1 Sec
	Recipe:	3 min	Eating:	20 min – During Meal

Name:	Wood Apple (कवठ  - in Marathi) Chutney / Souse
Preface:	You don’t have taste? Are you bored of eating routine food? Are you bored of life in general? Then you need to make them both Colorful and Tasty.
Will:	Here is how you can do it. Just prepare this Chutney and Taste it! Ttttak!!
Pre-Preparation:	·         But it is not that simple. You have to get Wood Apple for that. You have to walk to the market, and you have to be lucky enough to find them in the market (it is seasonal and rare and you must be on the lookout). Or you should have the Tree in your courtyard. Or somebody having the tree in his courtyard, but fortunately (for you) having no taste for wood apple, should offer it to you. ·         When you get it, GET IT. Then the life is tasty at least for one week. ·         If the aroma spreads in the house, use it immediately. Otherwise wait. If you break it before that, it is faint pinkish brown and has faint and sourish smell. It also tastes sour and a bit bitterish TURAT. BUT DON’T WORRY. It’s hot and sour Chutney also tastes good. ·         But be patient and wait till it is ripe. (The Aroma in unmistakable.) Then break it and scoop out the pulp. It is dark purplish brown. Taste it! Wow!! Ttttak!!!
Preparation:	Now we will take equal quantity of grated jaggery, 1-2 teaspoons of red chili powder, ½ teaspoon cumin and coriander seed powder and salt to taste. Enough.
Recipe:	·         We will Mash the pulp. ·         We will mix all other ingredients and mash them again thoroughly. Then we will add some Chakk, some Ttukk and a bit of Tyanww; taste it and keep it aside (at least for 1 hour) for jaggery to get dissolved and to marinate. (Mash – Mix – Mash – done! … Simple. ) ·         Then we will taste it again to adjust and blend the tastes perfectly (really an excuse to taste it).
Fortification:	·         In this chutney we have already added jaggery (instead of sugar) that contains Iron salt. ·         Its seeds (after thorough chewing), supply additional protein. ·         It also contains insoluble as well as soluble fiber. ·         The chutney can be fortified by adding some coarsely ground groundnut or walnut powder.
Skills:	·         Blending of tastes is always more important in chutneys and souses. It’s like Harmony in music. Particularly in case of This Chutney, when there is a strong peculiar aroma in addition to blending of sweet, sour, salty, pungent and TURAT tastes, it is more difficult. It requires training under expert guide; prolonged practice, patience, intuition and inborn insight. And a bit of luck (stage of ripeness and the taste of THAT wood apple). ·         But don’t be afraid. As it is, it tastes good. ·         Otherwise through it away without hesitation. Better luck next time.
Decoration:	It decorates the dinner plate. It need not be decorated.
Serving:	… ?
Savoring:	While eating meals or snacks, intermittent spontaneous uncontrollable sounds of Ssssk, … SsssS, … Ch, … Chak, and … Tttak!
Thoughts & Afterthoughts	·         Without any preservatives its shelf-life is 3-4days and 7-8 days in Fridge (but it doesn’t last that long). ·         This can be used as a chutney, souse and Jam (with more jaggery or sugar and without chili powder) or in a gravy. ·         It has a jellifying property. So it can be used to prepare Jelly, Jam, or Burfi. We will learn to do them soon. ·         Culinary art is really an inborn quality. Very few people are gifted with that. And ‘Blending Perfection’ is a subject of PhD. ·         Few people, who don’t like Wood Apple Aroma, can also be there. To say the least, they are unfortunate. ·         With tasty food life also becomes tasty and interesting.