Summer in a Condiment 

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I hope you are relishing tomatoes in all their glorious varieties, from sun-sweetened cherry tomatoes to larger, juicy heirloom ones. Every year, I imagine the arrival of tomato season as a northward migration. I ate the first tomatoes in mid-April during a visit to Los Osos, in San Luis Obispo County. There is a lovely farmers market there on Monday afternoon that I recommend visiting, should you find yourself in the area. Then, tomatoes appeared at Bay Area's farmers markets and finally, they ripened in Humboldt County.

Besides eating them as a snack and in salads, I cook tomatoes with various other vegetables, like zucchini and eggplant. In the tomato-as-accompaniment department, one dish I have been making regularly this summer (after working on the recipe last year) is tomato and date chutney.

A bit of background: I grew up in a house without a spice rack. My mother, an accomplished cook, used fine sea salt regularly, freshly ground black pepper occasionally, freshly grated nutmeg on the cooked potato mix to make croquettes, and dried oregano sprinkled on pizza. I don't remember ever seeing any other spice jar in her kitchen. In general, Italian food uses fresh herbs more than dried ones or spices, so she wasn't an exception.

When I started writing my food blog, I was initially intimidated by the symphony of spices in Indian recipes. Then I relaxed and learned to use cumin, coriander, fenugreek, fresh ginger and others until my kitchen gained a proper spice rack.

In reading recipes from the Indian subcontinent, I discovered chutney, a condiment made from a mixture of spices and chopped vegetables, herbs or fruit, that is eaten as a side dish to add interest to plainer foods, such as rice.

I like the idea of having something handy to enliven foods that are either naturally or accidentally bland. I run a lot of experiments in the kitchen and sometimes the outcome is humdrum; chutney offers help in such situations.

The main obstacle in my quest was that most recipes include sugar, which I don't like to add to foods other than desserts. When I found a chutney where dates and raisins provided sweetness, I was inspired. After reading several recipes for Bengali tomato khejur chutney, each one a bit different, I worked on a personal version adapted to my taste and influenced by my Italian roots.

Dates are a favorite fruit, and I always carry one or two as snack on my bicycle rides. They are California-grown and come in many varieties. (If you are interested in learning about the journey of dates from the Middle East and North Africa to Southern California, a good place to start is the NPR article "Forbidding Fruit: How America Got Turned on to the Date" by The Kitchen Sisters and Lisa Morehouse.) For the chutney, I used Deglet Noor, Dayri (my favorite for eating) and Medjool. I didn't taste a difference in the final product, so I reach for what I have available.

The traditional recipe uses a Bengali spice blend called panch phoron, literally "five spices," consisting of the following seeds: brown mustard, cumin, fennel, fenugreek and nigella. Some recipes cook the whole seeds in oil, while others dry-roast and grind them before using. I went the whole-seed route.

I add a splash of lemon juice instead of the mango powder called for in the original recipe and for chili, I use either a small Italian peperoncino (which, together with the olive oil are the two Italian touches), or flaked Aleppo peppers. Another personal touch is softening the dried fruit with lukewarm water before use. 

This chutney is a bit spicy, a bit sweet, but not overly either. It brightens — in terms of both color and flavor — plain vegetables, like stewed cabbage, roasted cauliflower, roasted eggplant. It comes together quickly and the result is so delicious it is hard not to eat it by the spoonful off the serving bowl.

Tomato and Date Chutney

In my experience, nigella seeds are not available everywhere, but my source is the bulk section of the Arcata North Coast Co-op. The other seeds can be found in local grocery stores.

Serves 4-6 as a condiment.

Ingredients:

4-6 dates, pitted and chopped small to make ¼ cup

1 tablespoon raisins (chop large ones before measuring)

1 tablespoon lukewarm water

9 ounces ripe globe tomatoes (2-3 tomatoes)

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon cumin seeds

¼ teaspoon fennel seeds

¼ teaspoon fenugreek seeds

¼ teaspoon black mustard seeds and

¼ teaspoon nigella seeds

¼ teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes or 1 small Italian dry red chili ( 3/4-inch long), halved and de-seeded

½ tablespoon grated fresh ginger

A squeeze of fresh lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste

Put the dried fruit in a ramekin, add the lukewarm water, then stir. Let the fruit absorb the water for 15-20 minutes, stirring 2-3 times.

In the meantime, chop the tomatoes and gather them in a bowl.

Heat an 8- or 9-inch skillet on medium-low, add the olive oil and swirl to coat the bottom.

Add the 5 types of seeds and the pepper flakes or chili pepper. Stir and fry briefly until the first seeds pop.

Add the grated ginger, stir and cook 1 minute or so.

Add the tomatoes and stir well. Cover the skillet and let the tomatoes cook on low heat until quite soft (about 6 minutes). Stir a couple of times while cooking.

Add the dried fruit and the lemon juice and stir.

Cook over medium heat, uncovered, until the chutney is thick (about 5 minutes) and stir.

Take the skillet off the heat, sprinkle the salt and stir.

Serve the chutney warm or at room temperature. Store leftovers in a small airtight container in the refrigerator. Consume within a few days.

Simona Carini (she/her) also writes about her adventures in the kitchen on her blog pulcetta.com and shares photographs on Instagram @simonacarini. She particularly likes to create still lives with produce from the farmers market.