Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and the issue at hand is how to have a green baked potato. The answer involves Ireland, India, and Illinois. When politicians refer to the Three I’s, they mean Ireland, Italy and Israel, but here our topic is food, not ethnic voting patterns.
I was in Kalustyan’s on Lexington Avenue in New York City. Kalustyan’s is the mecca for Asian food products in the city. Shelves and shelves of wonder in jars and plastic bags stretching from the floor to the high ceiling. Why are the best things always so high up?
I found a jar of Coriander Chutney, took it home, tasted it, grabbed for water, and then — rather stupidly after tasting — read the label. This particular chutney is made with coriander, water, and serrano chilies. It is hot, too hot for me to take on directly.
But, diluted with sour cream — 2 parts sour cream to one part chutney — and you have a light green sauce this perfect for baked potato, or chip, or atop a salad, or even with those lamb chops in the background of the picture.
The chutney is Indian inspired, but it is made by a wonderful firm, Raja Foods, based in Illinois. The Raja folks have wide distribution across the Eastern United States. Look for the label, SWAD not Raja, in your local Asian food store.
Or, you can go online and find many recipes to quickly create a lovely chutney that has all the multiple uses I have suggested. My jar from Raja has, as I noted, serrano chilies as the third major component. You’ll find the online recipes offer you a variety of heat and flavor options: lots of chilies, none at all, mint, coconut, … Because you can whip up a batch in little time, you can experiment at will, looking for the particular combination that makes you smile. Or perhaps sweat.
And, you always have the option I employed: mixing the chutney with sour cream. Or crème fraiche or plain yogurt.
Just make sure that for tomorrow, St. Patrick’s, you do have this green condiment atop your baked potato. My name is O’Rourke, but tomorrow we are all Irish.