My Morning Chocolate

I couldn’t wait to make peach chutney pizza this week, thanks to my three inspirations: a person, a restaurant, and a peach orchard.

First, there was Aarti Sequeira, the most recent winner of the The Next Food Network Star and the contestant I was rooting for all season.  Here’s a promo for her new show, Aarti Paarti:

See what Aarti’s “culinary point-of-view” is? (That’s the big buzz phrase on the show.)  It’s not obvious in the video, but she’s all about teaching viewers to incorporate Indian flavors into their meals.

This makes Aarti Paarti the perfect show for me. I have wanted to learn how to cook Indian food ever since I discovered the Sunday 5 pound Indian buffet when I was studying abroad in London.  My love for food developed during that trip, and the buffet was part of that.  I remember the restaurant served 20 chutneys in various colors:  some sweet, some spicy, some sour.

And then, on Sunday’s season finale, Aarti cooked an Indian pizza for a demo tape – made with chutney!  Right away, I decided this is what I wanted to do with the pounds of peaches I picked at the orchard a couple of weeks ago.  My first and third inspirations came together easily.

At the same time, I haven’t been able to get the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had out of my head.  It came from The Green Table in New York’s Chelsea Market.  Listen to this description, straight from their menu:  ”Neighborly Farms Raw Milk Cheddar Cheese with Herbed Butter and Roasted Apples on Amy’s Sourdough”. Sounds amazing, right?  What I love about this sandwich is the sweet apples paired with salty, sharp cheese.

So here’s where the all of my inspirations collide: Aarti used paneer cheese on her pizza, but I wanted to use a sharp cheddar with the peach chutney to recreate the salty/sweet flavor of the grilled cheese.

I didn’t quite achieve that salty/sweet balance – because chutney is made with vinegar, my pizza had more of a sour/sweet/salty flavor – but the pizza was still delicious.

And if you have leftover chutney, as I did, the good news is you are able to can it.  If I get back to the peach orchard, everyone I know is getting chutney this holiday season.

Peach Chutney
Adapted from Oprah.com

I couldn’t find Aarti’s recipe, so I worked with Oprah’s instead.

1/2 white onion
2 cloves garlic
about an inch of ginger
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 peaches, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
2 teaspoons vinegar
zest of 3 lemons
juice of 2 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
1 bunch of scallions, green parts only
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

To peel the peaches, first drop them into boiling water for five seconds, then into a bowl of ice water.  The skins will slide off easily.  Cut the peaches into 1/2 inch cubes and put them to the side for later.

To slide the peach skins off easily, first drop peaches in boiling water, then ice water.

Finely chop the onion, garlic, and ginger.  Heat oil in a large saute pan, then cook this mixture until it is fragrant and begins to brown, about 5 minutes.

Add the rest of the ingredients, including the peeled and diced peaches, and bring the mixture to a boil.

The peach chutney before it begins to boil

Then reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes.  If you’d like to make pizza and your chutney sauce is too thin, puree half of the mixture in a food processor and then return to the pan. (Note: the chutney will thicken as it cools.)

The peach chutney, ready to serve. To make the chutney thicker, I pureed half of it in the food processor.

Peach Chutney Pizza

Pizza dough, naan, or pita bread
Sharp cheddar cheese (Goat cheese or ricotta cheese would be good too)
Cilantro, chopped

If you use your own pizza dough, pre-bake according to your recipe’s directions.  (I cook my dough at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.)

Spread your dough or bread with chutney, top with cheese, and bake until the crust begins to brown and the cheese melts. (The baking time will vary depending on what kind of dough/bread you use.)

Top with cilantro and serve.