Yesterday was Vasant Panchami when Hindus worship Goddess Saraswati. This day also signifies the arrival of the spring season. This mouthwatering plastic chutney (raw green papaya chatni) was prepared on this occasion for puja bhog. It is an extraordinary Bengali style traditional sweet dish. It is often prepared to celebrate a special day in this region. Many people also get surprised by its weird name – plastic chutney, particularly the word plastic. Is there any plastic in that sweet dish? Who eats plastic? or why somebody would eat plastic?
If you did not hear about this sweet dish before then all those queries may come in your mind naturally. But I think all Bengali people have tried it for once and loved it. They know what its.
Yes, ofcourse there is no plastic in this dish and nobody would add use plastic as an ingredient to make this awesome plastic chatni. But still, it is named plastic because it looks like plastic because of green papaya & sugar. The combination of raw papaya & sugar makes it look like plastic.
As it needs plenty of sugar to make this so certainly health-conscious people do not want to make it regularly at home. It is normally prepared for the special occasion.
I prepared this for Saraswati puja bhog. It was super delicious to have after khichdi bhog. I used grated raw papaya to make this. But sometimes people use thin raw papaya slices to make this awesome plastic chutney (Raw papaya chatni). The appearance of that chatni will be different. Both are prepared similar way. The taste will be similar. You can try both of those plastic chutneys (Bengali peper chatni).
Plastic chutney recipe
- 150 gm raw/green papaya (kancha pepe), shredded/grated
- 50 gm green/raw tamarind
- 2 teaspoons ginger (adrak) paste
- 150 gm sugar
- Salt to taste
- Handful kishmish/raisin
- Handful cashew nuts (kaju)
- 50 gm ripe dates, deseeded & cut into pieces
- 50 gm aam sattwo; aam papad, cut into small cubes
- 4 cardamoms, ilaichi
- 2.5 teaspoon any refined oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 1.5 teaspoons panch foron
- 2.5 cups water
- Boil 1 cup water & cook green tamarind, strain it remove tamarind residual and keep tamarind extracts in separate bowl
- Now boil 1.5 cups water and add grated raw papaya, then add tamarind extracts too
- Boil till papaya becomes soft & perfectly cooked
- Now add ginger paste & salt to taste
- Then add sugar too and boil another 4-5 minutes
- Add kishmish, cashew nuts, dates, aam papad (aam sattwo)
- Separate cooking pot add 2.5 teaspoons any refined oil and add cardamoms (ilaichi), bayleaves, panch foron and cook till nice aroma comes out
- Add all spices to the chatni & mix all; cook another 2-3 minutes
Also try another popular & special chatni which is prepared with mixed fruit. Did you ever try any of those chatnis?
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