Volume 1, Issue 5
“Cooking Ex-Libris” is a CasaFestiva.com series exploring new recipes from my own cookbooks. Enjoy!
By Katy Budge
Salsas, Sambals, Chutneys & Chowchows isn’t the oldest cookbook in my collection, but it’s probably the one I’ve had the longest. I bought it when it was first published in 1993 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.), when I belonged to a cookbook club akin to the Columbia House record club. Most of the books were very affordable, under $15, as this one was.
I’d heard of authors Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby from their widely successful Thrill of the Grill cookbook, so decided to give this newer book a try. Besides, its subtitle — “Intensely Flavored ‘Little Dishes’ from Around the World” – was intriguing.
This cookbook dates back to when I was an inveterate recipe reader and user. There was a time I dared not stray from ingredients, measurements, or techniques. That’s not the case anymore, and probably one of the reasons I’m a terrible baker … unless you need baked doorstops, then I’m your gal.
In revisiting Salsas, Sambals, Chutneys & Chowchows, I realized that this book was one of my first jumping off points from being wedded to recipes. Indeed, a jacket blurb from Nicole Routhier (Cooking Under Wraps and the Food of Vietnam) called this book “… a wonderful collection of ‘little side dishes’ presented with a brisk, nothing-to-it insouciance guaranteed to dispel even a novice cook’s ‘fear of boiling water’.”
Evidently, I took the insouciance to heart!
The full list of recipes in this book not only includes salsas, sambals, and chowchows, but also blatjangs, atjars, piccalillies, relishes, and catsups. (I’ll wait while you repeat piccalillies a few times … just for fun.) The authors readily admit that the lines of demarcation between all these is often blurred, delineated only by the use of a certain ingredient or application. That said, it’s very easy to make most of these recipes suit your tastes, what’s in season, and what you have on hand.
It was interesting that – even in 1993 – a dish that’s very clearly a ceviche is dubbed a clam salsa, and a Brazilian chimichurri is called a “parsley-onion relish for meat”. Seems our culinary vocabulary has made some strides since then. On the other hand, a kimchi is called a kimchi.
The Recipe
I have made a lot of the recipes in Salsas, Sambals, Chutneys & Chowchows, or at least riffs on them. One I hadn’t attempted yet was the Mango-Jicama Relish with Scotch Bonnet Peppers. While most of the words in that title sound wonderful, jicama does not. It’s never been one of my favorite foods, but I’m trying to like it more because it does have quite a few health benefits for such an assuming root.
To provide the heat for this recipe, I took the authors’ advice of using a hot sauce instead of habañero peppers themselves. Seemed a better way to regulate the heat rather than just putting two peppers in, which seemed like a taste bud disaster waiting to happen. I opted for the fiery-but-flavorful 5 Out Hot Sauce from a favorite local restaurant – The Spoon Trade in Grover Beach.
This recipe turned out to be a great accompaniment for grilled shrimp tacos, and I’d certainly make it again. Alas, it didn’t make me like jicama any more than I already did, but at least I found a tasty way to hide it … er, I mean eat it. Perhaps with a dash of insouciance!