Subject of mangoes
Today I went to Mrs. K.’s for lunch and brought her a jar of my mango chutney. I confess dear reader that I was sheepish about her tasting what I made. It was as though I was in school again and meeting the principal for an evaluation. After all Mrs. K. grew up with mango trees in her family garden and has used them in chutneys, pickles and curries for most of her life. If I could think of a fruit that instills that same confidence in me it would probably be the raspberry.
I grew up surrounded by raspberry bushes, ran through them as a kid till they scratched my legs to bits, and ate so many in the summertime that the tips of my fingers were constantly red. Eating my Aunt Flora’s raspberry pies at the cottage on the dock with a group of kids, pie portions swimming in vanilla ice cream—the only time we were all quiet—is also part of my juicy raspberry memories.
So back to Mrs. K. and the chutney. Although I was there for lunch, as soon as she saw my jar of mango chutney she wanted to taste some. I thought she would wait till I left, but no this was serious business as I quickly found out. “Fetch me a spoon,” she demanded. And so I hustled to the kitchen, popped open the fresh jar of chutney and sat there on the sofa waiting with anticipation and, yes, some fear for her to give me her verdict.
She sat on the sofa, back erect and staring at the jar of chutney. Then she took one taste on the spoon and waited a few seconds until the flavor filled her palette. “It’s like murabba,” she said with an air of delight. I could have been a wise guy and told her that I intended it to taste like that, but then I didn’t even know what the word meant so there was no use pretending. Although I wished it were more like chutney and less like the strange other thing, I was happy that at least it tasted to her like something recognizable. She told me she’d have it in the mornings with cheddar on toast, and that she wanted another jar because the one I gave her just wasn’t big enough.
When I arrived home I typed this new word into Google and came up with the English translation for marmalade. While it’s true that my chutney was sweeter than I had wanted because the mangoes were ripe and not tart at all, I had pleased my teacher and created something entirely new to me.
And as Mrs. K. is always telling me, cooking is not about being perfect but about creativity and invention.
November 1st, 2011 at 2:40 pm
It’s like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about Indian cooking. I think that you can do with more pics, but other than that, this is magnificent blog. A fantastic read. I will definitely be back.
November 1st, 2011 at 4:46 pm
Thanks Marcel for your insights! I want to add more pics too. See you again soon.
November 5th, 2011 at 11:34 am
Howdy – I been reading this website once in a while & was wondering if it’s at all an option to receive articles other than by rss? I noticed that a good deal of weblogs feature email subscriptions to their latest articles. Do you offer that for your blog as well by any chance? Many thanks for any help. Latina Oquin from Dubai
November 6th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Thanks for reading. No, I don’t have a newsletter or anything like that. Something to think about though.
November 11th, 2011 at 9:43 am
Howdy! This is kind of off topic but I need some help from an established blog. Is it hard to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick. I’m thinking about setting up my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do you have any tips or suggestions? Thank you
November 11th, 2011 at 10:43 am
I believe this website has got some really excellent information about vegetarian Indian cooking.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:55 am
Perfect. Just what I was searching for!
November 11th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Great. See you again!
November 11th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Thanks for visiting. I would go to tutorials on the WordPress site. It’s not hard but it is very time-consuming.
November 11th, 2011 at 10:42 pm
Hi there, I found your blog via Google while searching for a related topic, your website came up, it looks great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
November 12th, 2011 at 12:08 am
Reminds me how much I love my mom’s cooking.
November 12th, 2011 at 12:54 am
Merely wanna remark on a few general things: The website design is perfect and the subject material is really excellent.
November 12th, 2011 at 1:13 am
Keep up the excellent work. I read a few posts and I believe that your weblog is really interesting and has a lot of fantastic information about cooking.
November 12th, 2011 at 1:13 am
Some genuinely nice and useful information on this internet site.
November 12th, 2011 at 8:19 am
Thanks very much. I look forward to seeing you here again!
November 12th, 2011 at 8:21 am
Thanks for your comments and for stopping by!
November 12th, 2011 at 8:22 am
Thanks. Glad you stopped by.
November 13th, 2011 at 2:59 am
The website design is perfect and I especially like the stories about Mrs. K.
November 13th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
I truly value this site; great post.
November 17th, 2011 at 6:11 am
Outstanding post!