The Greenpoint Food Market Awakens to Spring

PRODUCT LIST FOR APRIL 10 GFM

Spice Route Citrus Chutney (new!)
Plum Ketchup (new!)
Middle Eastern Zucchini Relish with Sumac (new!)
Sweet Tomato Chutney with Black Mustard Seeds
Tomatillo Conserves
Apricot and Roasted Red Pepper Chutney
Blueberry Chutney
Date From Hell Chutney
Pear Cardamom Chutney (only a few jars left!)

Tropical Trend Alert

While NYC trend forecasters are falling over themselves in blogs, magazines and atop soapboxes (i.e. bar stools) predicting the Tiki Craze to soon land on our Eastern shores, The Collective is kinda hoping these forward glancing folks just might be right. Not that we don't love the low lighting, clandestine vibe and all that dark liquor of the current faux-Speakeasy invasion but it's time perhaps to reference another era of vintage cocktails (and maybe one not, um, so associated with the great Depression and American Dust bowl). Who doesn't love - even if with feigned guilt - umbrella drinks and the 40's/50's glamor of the Polynesian sort?

On the road to Bali be sure to channel Dorothy Lamour and grass A-lines with The D P Chutney Collective's festively retro Green Papaya Chutney, equally at home in Old Ceylon or Bora Bora. The Collective provides below a South Seas-inspired entree recipe featuring our latest condiment and encourages you to throw, in the spirit of the times, a backyard lua or island-themed picnic. Hawaiian Chicken will be a hit at either.

HAWAIIAN CHICKEN WITH GREEN PAPAYA RICE

Feel free to substitute chicken with thin pork cutlets or fish fillets. Good with stir-fried broccoli or a watercress salad. And don't forget to mix up a Mai Tai for the chef prior to preparing.

Mix about 1/2 cup each ketchup and red wine vinegar in a large bowl. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar, 1 cup of chopped pineapple and juices and 1 heaping teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Now season to taste with salt, black pepper and soy sauce - you must use all three for a layered, richer flavor. Add thin chicken cutlets (or fish or pork) to the bowl, cover and marinate in the fridge overnight.

Remove cutlets from marinade and place on an oiled baking sheet. Top with thinly sliced onions and green bell peppers and bake for about 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 400 degrees. Remove from oven, baste liberally with remaining marinade and pop in broiler for 5 minutes until just browning on edges.

Serve with Green Papaya Rice. Here's how: About 30 minutes before putting chicken in the oven, place in a saucepan: 1 cup brown rice, 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock, 1 T. soy sauce and heaping T. or two of The Collective's Green Papaya Chutney. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to very low and simmer for about 45 minutes or until rice is free from liquid. Let sit for 5 minutes, fluff gently with a fork and serve hot.

We Will Release No Chutney Before Its Time

The D P Chutney Collective tirelessly toils to craft new products meeting the demanding standards of taste and ingredients quality you've grown to love. We're uber excited over the newest addition to our family - Old Ceylon Green Papaya Chutney - but you'll just have to cool your heels a bit longer before sampling.

This complex, heady melange of green papaya, lime zest, fresh ginger shards and colorful chilies, all stewed in a sweet coriander seed syrup, needs to mature "in jar" for a few weeks, and then, through the magic of kitchen alchemy, develops flavors both intensified and even more balanced. Hopefully we'll have a few to share at the upcoming Greenpoint Food Market on April 10 but we'll most definitely be uncorking in quantity during Carroll Gardens' May 31 Parked extravaganza at Brooklyn Yard. Check back soon on the progress of our "sleeping" beauties. Now let's let them get some rest.

Suggestions for use: all Caribbean and Thai dishes, fish of any type or preparation, mixed with cottage cheese for a retro salad. This chutney also pairs very well with chilled white wine: Sancerre, Pouilly Fume, Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc.

Scones for your Chutney

Did you know chutneys and relishes are near-perfect, and in some instances sublime, partners in marriage with baked goods? Almost any of our chutneys add zest and exotic appeal to either store-bought or homemade rolls, biscuits and savoury quick breads. We recently tore through a batch of hot scones slathered with Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery's sea-salt flecked butter and thick dollops of The Collective's Apricot and Roasted Red Pepper Chutney (a slightly smokier twist on our standard apricot/pepper blend). Below is a recipe for baked treats we're proud to spread our products upon.

MARJORAM AND BLACK PEPPER SCONES

2 cups all-purpose flour / 2 t. sugar / 1 T. baking powder / 3 T. chopped fresh marjoram (if using dried, reduce the amount to 2 T.) / 1 T. freshly ground black pepper / 1 stick of butter at room temperature / 1 large egg / 3/4 cup milk / extra flour for kneading the dough / coarse ground sea or kosher salt crystals

• Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and lightly butter a baking sheet.
• Sift the flour, sugar and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter until the mix is crumbly.
• In another, smaller bowl beat the egg with the milk, then add to the flour mixture. Add the marjoram and pepper and stir to make a "wet" dough.
• Turn the dough onto a floured surface - and with well-dusted hands - knead the dough for about 10 turns.
• Divide the dough into golfball-sized pieces and arrange on the baking sheet. The pieces should not touch each other. Flatten each ball to the thickness of about 1/2 inch.
• Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. The scones should be barely golden on top.
• Sprinkle with coarse grain salt while still hot.
  

These are best eaten right away but also nice at room temperature with aperitifs, spread with softened butter and of course, your favorite D P Collective chutney.

The Collective Shows Our Shelfish Side

If you're in the area on April 3, please stop by the Greenpoint Public Library and show your support for continued, vital funding (no budget cuts please, Emperor Bloomberg) and help out yourself with a purchase at the branch's semi-annual Bake and Book Sale. The D P Chutney Collective will be donating jars for sale so be sure to snag some superior condiments for a great cause. (Not to mention at one-time only bargain rates!) Your tastebuds and the 2,000,000+ users of Brooklyn's branch libraries will thank you.

Greenpoint Public Library
107 Norman Ave at Leonard Street
718/349-8504

More info on the Brooklyn Public Library's campaign to hold on to precious funding can be found here.

New Product Alerts !

PLUM KETCHUP

Did you know the original ketchup recipe had a centuries-old Chinese pedigree and was blended from various varieties of pickled fish? British sailors in the 18th century brought this unique (and we imagine rather smelly) concoction home to the U.K. and eventually re-gifted it to the West as a tomato-based, sweet and tangy condiment.

Historical research reveals more than a dozen variations popular in Colonial America, including Green Tomato, Mushroom and Green Pepper ketchups. The Collective merged these bold examples with a new take on the perennial throwaway Chinese take-out packet of syrupy, bland "Duck Sauce" and ended up with Plum Ketchup.

Sweet, slighty tart and spiced with nutmeg, cloves, garlic and malt vinegar, this is the ultimate French fry accessory, and equally luscious on beef or soy dogs, hamburgers and their veggie counterparts. But Plum Ketchup is a bit too fancy to be confined to "everyday use" and should also be basted on turkeys and roast chickens or spoon-brushed across plates (drizzling is too 80s, too Patrick Batemen, no?) as a "chef's sauce".

MIDDLE EASTERN ZUCCHINI RELISH

Based upon a treasured family recipe from a Madison, WI home gardener friend of the Collective, our Middle Eastern Zucchini Relish draws inspiration from the exotic desert spice - sumac. (No, not the poisonous variety!) Used everywhere from Turkey to Iran (and pretty much nowhere else) sumac is harvested and produced from dried red berries of the plant itself and lends a tangy, vaguely citrus note and rich purple shade to many Mid-East dishes.

We've liberally added the intriguing spice to fresh zucchini and organic Roma tomatoes, along with nutmeg, cloves, chili flakes, fresh green chilies and onions, to bring you a deep fuchsia relish fit for a sultan. A great addition to stews and sauces, this relish happily garnishes all grilled and roasted meats and veggies. Try it with sliced turkey or provolone cheese and lettuce in your next awe-inspiring wrap sandwich and watch your co-workers swoon at lunchtime.

SPICE ROUTE CITRUS CHUTNEY

Call it Major D.P.'s Chutney if you like. Our Spice Route Citrus Chutney bears the most resemblance to the classic, mass-produced Anglo-Indian mixtures available worldwide, but the Collective's version stresses only the highest quality fruits (organic limes, lemons and Valencia oranges) and spices (mace, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon from traceable, renown suppliers and sources).

Thick, dark and foreboding (who couldn't love that?) from a sweetening mix of dark brown sugar and organic blackstrap molasses, Spice Route Citrus Chutney also packs a powerful tang courtesy of its namesake ingredients. It's dark and rich from the unsulphured molasses and brown sugar which balance the tart and sour goodness and antioxidant value of whole citrus fruit (yup, we use it all . . . citrus flesh, zest, skin, pith, you name it).

Place a dollop anywhere and everywhere . . . crowning a baked potato, atop an omelet, on buttered bread or toast or behind your ear (yes, it smells that good).

The D P Chutney Collective loves this quick fix for unexpected cocktail guests: mix 1/3 cup of our chutney with 2/3 cup of regular or low-fat, softened cream cheese and use as a spread for rice crackers or stuff into hollowed out cherry tomatoes.