Southern Indian Style Banana Peel Chutney

This chutney would be the perfect accompaniment to Southern Indian dishes or even cheese or meat dishes. It is best made with organic banana peels, but for non-organic bananas, soak the peels in 4 parts water and 1-part white vinegar for 20 minutes before rinsing. Keep for yourself or give as a gift.

Makes about 500 millilitres

Ingredients

• 6 ripe banana peels 

• 2 tablespoons of oil (coconut or vegetable) 

• 1 large onion, diced (red or white are great)

• 1 garlic clove, chopped (optional)

• 2 dried red chillies, torn (or use red chilli flakes)
  salt

• 1 tablespoon of black mustard seeds

• 3 tablespoons of garam masala (or any curry powder)

• 1 tablespoon of sugar (ideally brown, coconut, date syrup or honey will work) 

• 1 ripe banana

• 500 millilitres orange juice

Method

1. Soak the brown banana skins in cold water for an hour, replacing the water twice during that time, then drain. Put the skins in a saucepan with fresh water, bring to a boil, simmer for five minutes, then drain and leave to cool. Once cool, roughly chop the skins into small pieces.

2. Heat a large saucepan with a tablespoon of oil over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, chilli and a teaspoon of salt, and saute for five minutes. Stir in the mustard seeds, curry powder, sugar, the chopped banana skin and one chopped banana. After two minutes, add the orange juice and leave to simmer for 10 minutes, until jammy.

3. Decant into sterilised jars and keep in the fridge for up to a month.

Recipe provided by Mark Breen of Seasonal Kitchen.

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