It’s been ages since we posted a recipe. Things haven’t been very smooth at the home front. We have been extremely busy with our work. My parents are visiting us and there were lots of trips to the hospital to check whether everything is alright with them. Things are looking better now. The past few months haven’t been exciting cooking wise. We ate pretty regular stuff as mom wanted to eat regular food. My diet went for a toss as I really wanted to stop the low carb diet for few days. So over and all there was not much to blog about. However as I was looking at my notes, I stumbled upon my mom’s recipes which Sumi and I jotted down when we went to Kolkata during the winter. So over the course of next few posts you will find her delicious recipes.

Chutneys are a regular in any Indian menu, mostly as appetizers. But among Bengalis, it prominently features as a dessert quite logically as a sweet. The tomato chutney (Chaatni in Bengali) is a regular and is also a special dish prepared on festivals. There is also the date chutney, jaggery chutney (khejuri gurer chaatni) and lots of other varieties. My mom makes a special chutney with 5 fruits and vegetables (hence the name pancharangi). It tastes different as in each spoonful you might find some other fruit My mom made quite a lot of it that was supposed to have gone on for few days but the big mouth in me gobbled almost half of it in 1 day hehehe. Hopefully you all love it too.

Note – Some ingredients are typical Bengali ones. I have tried to explain it as best as I could. You can try a variation of spices though depending on what you get from your nearby Indian shop.

Ingredients

• 6 Tomatoes
• 1 Apple
• 1 Carrot
• 50gm Aamsotto (fruit leather made out of mango pulp mixed with concentrated sugar solution and sun dried)
• 20gm Cherry
• 8-10 Cashewnuts
• 20gm Raisins
• Sugar (to taste)
• 1/2 tsp Paanch Foron (Indian five spices)
• 1tsp Bhaja Mosola Guro (Indian five spices dry roasted and grounded to powder)
• 1Tbsp Refined oil

Method

Chop all the vegetables and fruits and set aside.

In a wok, add the oil and then the paanch foron and saute for 10-15 sec till the fragrances come out. Add the cashew, raisin and the other chopped fruits and vegetables and cook covered for 15-20 min sauteing in between. Take care that it doesn’t stick to the pan. Just when it is cooked, add the sugar (add sugar as per your taste – usually it is 1 cup).

Keep sauting till the the gravy thickens. Take it out and add the powdered spice on top. Garnish with extra cashews. You can set it aside in fridge for better taste.