Kitchen Experiments: Schezwan Chutney

To begin with, for all our non-Indian readers (ha ha…as if!) ‘Schezwan’ is a modification of the name Sichuan, the province of China renowned for its fiery spicy food.
In India, one gets an amazing array of ‘Indian-Chinese’ (or Sino-Ludhianwi, as labeled by former Minister Mani Shanker Aiyer) food – with smile-inducing names like ‘Chicken 65’, ‘Prawn Bullet’, ‘Singapuri Rice’, ‘Veg Triple Schezwan’, all of which are YUMMY- but as Chinese as filet mignon.
So, given this background, ‘Schezwan Chutney’ is a perfectly appropriate name for this Oriental-tasting spicy sauce/dip/chutney.
The recipe below is courtesy the wonderful Mr. S.N.
Mr. S.N., Mrs. S.N. and P.N. were my guides to foodie goodies beyond Indian food. I first tasted as well as learnt to make pizzas, pastas, tacos and much more at their home. I’ll always be grateful to them for broadening my horizons, food-wise.

Mr. S.N.’s Schezwan Chutney:
Take 10 whole dried red chilies and fry them in a tablespoon of oil till they soften and darken in colour.



Grate 3 " of ginger and sauté it in the same oil as the chilies (you can add the ginger halfway through sautéing the chilies)


Grind the chillies, grated ginger and about 15 cloves of peeled garlic, add 1 tablespoon of sugar,1 tablespoon of vinegar , 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and quarter teaspoon of salt and further grind to smooth paste.

The end result should be a glorious, smooth rich red paste. The colour will vary to the type and age of chilies being used and the amount of soy sauce, but aim for a toe-tingly red.



You can use this chutney as a dip or condiment or to add flavour to other dishes - it gives a zingy Chinese-like taste to whatever it is added to!

Mr. S.N.’s suggested recipe using this paste is:
Peel a boiled potato and cut it into thin finger-shaped pieces.
Heat 1 table spoon of oil, fry the potato fingers, add a quarter spoonful of roasted sesame seeds and stir in Chinese sauce to cover the potatoes

Though Mr. S.N. has kindly given the measures for all ingredients, I would urge everybody to experiment and find the proportion that works for them. That’s the point of a dip or condiment – it alters the taste of any food to what you like :-)