Ou khatta

Elephant apple cooked down in jaggery, sweet and sour at once.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 2 elephant apples, ou, about 600 g
• 250 g jaggery, grated
• 300 ml water
• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 2 dried red chillies
• 1/2 teaspoon panch phoron
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons mustard oil

Method

1. ELEPHANT APPLE COOKED DOWN IN JAGGERY, SWEET AND SOUR AT ONCE. Its article's whole definition is that: ou khatta is A SWEET AND SOUR CHUTNEY OR MARMALADE MADE OF OU (ELEPHANT APPLE; DILLENIA INDICA) IN JAGGERY, mostly in the post-monsoon season, and AS IT IS A SOUR FRUIT, IT IS COOKED WITH JAGGERY OR SUGAR. One fruit, one sweetener, and the sourness of the fruit is the reason for the sweetener.
2. SO ALMOST EVERYTHING BELOW IS A CHOICE. The article gives the fruit, the jaggery and the fact that it is cooked. The tempering, the quantities and the timing are mine; the dish is the fruit.
3. THE FRUIT IS NOT USED WHOLE AND THE CENTRE IS DISCARDED. Dillenia indica is a hard green fruit of overlapping fleshy sepals. Peel away the tough outer layer, use the fleshy segments, and throw out the fibrous core.
4. BOIL THE SEGMENTS IN PLAIN WATER UNTIL THEY COLLAPSE. Twenty minutes. They go from firm and squeaky to soft and pulpy and the water turns cloudy.
5. MASH THEM COARSE AND PUT THE JAGGERY IN ONLY THEN. Sugar added to hard fruit stops it softening. Mash with a spoon, leave some texture, then the jaggery.
6. COOK IT DOWN UNTIL A SPOON LEAVES A TRAIL. Fifteen or twenty minutes, stirring often as it thickens. The article's word is marmalade and that is the consistency.
7. TEMPER MUSTARD SEEDS, CHILLIES AND PANCH PHORON AND STIR THEM THROUGH AT THE END. In mustard oil, until the seeds pop. It keeps a fortnight in the fridge.
8. ITS ARTICLE OFFERS A SAVOURY ROUTE AND A SECOND USE. PEOPLE WHO DO NOT LIKE SUGAR ALSO PREPARE IT WITH TANGY MUSTARD AND GARLIC PASTE-BASED GRAVY, ALONG WITH RED CHILLI POWDER, and SOMETIMES OU IS ADDED TO DAL OR DALMA. It also notes the fruit is rich in vitamin C, and records an Odia legend that the ou plant WAS ONLY FOUND IN PARADISE until the goddess Parvati brought it to earth with the betel vine.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes