Mango chutney (Photo: bbc.com)

A: Welcome to VOV24/7’s Food Delight, bringing you recipes and tell you about the cuisine of Vietnam and different parts of the world.

B: Of course, it’s nice to have a chef who can tell us about the cuisine of his homeland. Today, Indian chef Halim Ali Khan will tell us about chutney.

A: Chutney may sound strange to many but if you’re interested in Indian food, you should know about chutney.

B: Chutney is something like a pickle that serves as an accompaniment to dishes in Indian cuisine. It’s served with almost every Indian meal and adds flavor to any food it’s paired with. Chutney can be made from fruits, herbs, or vegetables. Let’s ask Halim Ali Khan.

Khan: Chutney has different meanings. If you use chutney in French cuisine, chutney is different, and Indian chutney is different. Mostly the name chutney came from India. French restaurants also use chutney. They have pineapple chutney. They sometimes put in the foie gras strawberry chutney or jam.

A: I know there are varieties of chutney, but it is most popular in Indian cuisine.

Khan: But in India, we put spices. Mostly it is like a pickle. It’s preserved in mustard oil. We cook and temper it with mustard oil. Spices with mustard oil will help to store it for a long time. Now they dry the vegetables under the sun with spices. Spices mixed with vegetables and kept under the sun for days.

A: So, the most interesting thing about chutney is you can use different fruits, herbs, and vegetables to create various kinds of chutney. Could you tell us some popular recipes for chutney, Halim?

Khan: Mint chutney is like mint sauce. It’s made of mint and coriander. We put lemon, yogurt, ginger, garlic, chili, black sauce, and cumin seeds. So, all blend together. Mint chutney is best to be eaten with tandoori barbecue dishes.

B: That’s a chutney recipe made with herbs. Basically, for chutney, vegetables are cooked with mustard oil, mixed with spices, then dried.

Khan: First, you cook, cool it down, then mix with spices. With mustard oil, mustard seeds, you make a paste. Mustard oil or mustard paste and chilli powder, you make a paste. Then, you mix it with vegetable. Then, you put it under the sun for two or 3 days. That was done in the traditional way in the house.

A: What is the purpose of putting the vegetables in the sun?

Khan: To make it dry, the vegetables will absorb the flavor of the oil and spices. It will mix together with that. Only fresh chutney we make.

B: And chutney made with fruits - for example, mango - Is it made the same way?

Khan: Green mango. You mix with spices, then dry it in the sun for 3 or 4 days. Sometimes you make it with ripe mango, it’s sweet. The green mango, it’s sour. The basic ingredients are vegetables, you can put fruit, you can put carrot, lemon, you can put green chili, any vegetable you can make that.

A: Chutneys made from fresh ingredients and dried in the sun can be kept for a couple of days or a week in the refrigerator. Next time you visit an Indian restaurant, don’t forget to try Indian chutney.