Tzatziki with Pineapple Chutney
I should really end that heading with nibbles but instead I leave it blank because this combination goes so well with so many things. We had the Tzatziki and Chutney with poached salmon on raw dressed spinach, or rice noodles and stir fried veg, chicken, fish. You could really use the chutney in place of most other chutneys. The garlicy yoghurt kick of the Tzatziki goes perfectly with the sweetness of the chutney; a marriage made in heaven.
TZATZIKI
Ingredients
1 large cucumber
3 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed finely with a knife and half a teaspoon of salt.
500g low fat greek yoghurt
300ml soured cream (half fat is fine)
Maldon sea salt or other mild salt
1. Grate the cucumber and add the salt. Leave it in a colander for half an hour.
2. Put the olive oil in a bowl and add the garlic.
3. Whisk it with the yoghurt and soured cream.
4. Press the cucumber to remove some of the salt and squeeze out the liquid.
5. Add it to the yoghurt soured cream mixture.
6. Season to taste and drizzle some olive oil on top before serving (only use virgin oil if its flavour is subtle). If you are not serving with the pineapple Chutney below, then add finely chopped dill.
7. Serve with tortilla chips, crudites, alongside the chorizo hotpot…. the list goes on.
The pineapple and ginger chutney came courtesy of Meera Sodha’s book, Fresh India, and is absolutely delicious. In a non covid-19 world in which I could be bothered to shop for the correct ingredients, I would have a blue corn tortilla chip here which would be better both in background colour and flavour.
PINEAPPLE CHUTNEY
Ingredients
1 medium pineapple
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
3 tsp black mustard seeds (I used yellow mustard seeds first time and they were just as good)
3cm ginger, peeled and grated
3/4 tsp chilli powder (I didn’t add any second time I made this and first time I used paprika)
1 tsp ground black pepper
120g sugar
1 1/4 level tsp salt
Juice of 2 limes
Dice the pineapple into very small cubes, ensuring you do not include the core.
Heat the oil to medium and add the mustard seeds. When they start popping, add the pineapple, ginger, chilli, blackpepper, salt and pineapple. Make sure you add any juice of the pineapple from the chopping board too.
Cook over a medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring quite often so it does not catch on the base of the pan.
Now add the sugar and lime juice.
Cook for another 20 minutes until it looks like jam.
Decant into a sterilised jar.
