Cheery cherry chutney

I love cherries..

Who doesn’t?

Sadly though, cherry season doesn’t last very long. Unlike berries that you can find in any super market throughout the year cherries are only there for a few months. As much as I love to eat these beauties by themselves sometimes I crave just a little bit more. I had a bag of cherries sitting around in my kitchen for a few days and decided to make chutney out of it. This way I can make them last just a bit longer. I call this my "cheery cherry chutney" because it’s a glorious combination of sweet, spicy and sour . It takes me to my happy place.

The hardest part about this recipe would be pitting the cherries which I did using the chopstick method. I made x marks with a knife and pushed the pit out using a chopstick. Simply cut an x on the bottom of the cherries and push out the pit from the top using a chop stick.  You can also make life easier and smash the cherries much like you’d smash a garlic clove. You’ll be mashing them up in the pot anyways. But being me this did not occur to me till I was done pitting the entire batch. 

So here's how to make it.

1 c of pitted cherries

1/2 c apple cider vinegar

1/4 c brown sugar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 dried red chilies

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

First you heat up the oil and temper the dry spices(mustard, dried red chillies, fennel seeds) in oil till the mustard starts to splatter and dance in the oil.

After the seeds start crackling add all the other ingredients quickly as you don’t want the mustard seeds to burn. If the seeds get burnt it gives off a bitter taste which we don’t want for the chutney.

After that you add all the other ingredients and give it a quick stir.

It’ll look very watery at this point. Cover and let it simmer on medium heat for a good 20 minutes and it’ll dry up real good.

After it’s dried up you cool it in the pan and bottle it up.

It’ll last for a few weeks in the fridge. Chutneys are very versatile. You can smear them on toast. You can savor them with rice and daal or with roasted chicken. Or my favorite, you can enjoy it simply by itself.