BIC's pumpkin-cranberry chutney and my thoughts on Twitter

The Twitter World is such an amazing place. I honestly hesitated for months before tweeting, let alone opening an account on Twitter. I quickly changed my mind. In March 2010, I spoke to an editor for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry: I was looking for a job at a conference, and I had asked the editor how one gets to her position at such an important journal. She recommended that I tweet, and comment on blog posts whenever I could so that my name was "out there." I still don't know where "out there" is, but I figured that I could give it a shot. The one flaw with this plan is that I am pretty much incapable of tweeting about Organic Chemistry. Somehow, all my tweets are food related, and pretty much science-free (unless I am tweeting about the science of baking). And as I commented on the blogs I was reading (food-, cooking-, and baking-related), I laughed because I'm pretty sure the editor of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry was not telling me to comment on food blogs... I obviously did not get a job at a prestigious journal out of my rencontre with the editor of a top chemistry journal at the conference, nor out of my subsequent tweeting and blog-commenting. I did however get two lovely keepsakes from that conference: a pretty nifty USB key from the newest offshoot of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry?Medicinal Chemistry Letters?and a lovely pen from the journal Nature (the journal that I had my heart set on). I use both the USB key and the pen all the time, as I prepare blog and examiner posts. I have yet to find a job in my field.





I have now been tweeting for months, and I have honestly fallen in love with Twitter. Why? It's certainly not because I am writing for a prestigious journal because I am not. I am a Medical Writer. It's not prestigious, and it's not for a top journal. I am in love with Twitter because Twitter keeps me up-to-date on my (food-related) readings (and if my PhD taught me anything, it is that you absolutely MUST keep up with your readings in the field!). Twitter also alerts me when something is going on in the food world. Twitter allows me to connect with other great food-obsessed Montrealers. For example, Twitter introduced me to the lovely Eatalian Girl, organizer-extraordinaire of dishcrawls in Montreal. Twitter even introduces me to food bloggers from all around the world, like My Kugelhopf from Zürich, Switzerland! What more could you ask for (considering that Twitter cannot do my dishes for me)?



In October, Twitter told me to read a post from Gera at sweetfoods.com (sorry, I cannot recall who exactly it was). Gera's post explained that the culinary school at Baltimore International College (BIC) was looking for bloggers to try out their recipes and blog about their experiences with them, whether good or bad (I can do that!). And, they even provide their bloggers with a small stipend to cover the cost of ingredients (OK, the stipend didn't cover the price of all my ingredients, but I don't care: I'm not in it for the money). I quickly emailed the contact, only to find out that they had met their quota of bloggers for that month. Sadness. I forgot about the blogging-for-BIC?thing until they contacted me at the beginning of November to see if I was still interested (of course I am!). I quickly chose 2 recipes from their list. The first one was a recipe categorized as a dessert, but to me it is more of a condiment to be served with meat or curry: the recipe is for pumpkin-cranberry chutney. I chose this recipe for a few reasons, one being that I bought 3 pumpkins at the market that day, and I figured I couldn't roast/mash all of them. The other reason is that fall really is the perfect season for cranberries and pumpkin (although, go figure, I couldn't find fresh cranberries at the market or the grocery store).





The recipe looked like it was going to yield way too much chutney for little old me, so I halved the recipe (except for the hot peppers because I like it spicy). I also used apple cider vinegar, as opposed to "cider vinegar" because I like my cider vinegars to come from a fruit that is identified on the label. "Cider vinegar" just seems so vague to me. And for a Canadian/Québécois twist, I cut back on the brown sugar, and I added some maple syrup.

Here's my version of the recipe which yielded 1 liter of chutney:



Pumpkin-cranberry chutney

Yield: 1 liter of chutney

1 pound pumpkin, peeled and cut into large dice
1/2 pound apples, cored, peeled and cut into medium dice (this was 1 very large apple for me)
1/2 pound cranberries, frozen
1?4 cup ginger, shredded
2 cherry peppers, diced, seeds and all
1 teaspoons white mustard seed
2 cups apple cider vinegar
1/2 tablespoon salt
2/3 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup 


Place all ingredients except salt and brown sugar/maple syrup in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, mixing well.
Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes or until pumpkin is crisp tender (forkable, but not too forkable).
Add the salt, brown sugar, and maple syrup, and return to boil until salt and sugar are dissolved.
Cook for an additional 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Note: I cooked it until the chutney reached a temperature of about 215°F which is a good temperature for obtaining a thickened jam without pectin.
Remove from heat and refrigerate for 48 hours before serving.
The recipe is pretty simple, except for the part where you have to hack into a pumpkin. I'm not going to lie: chopping a pumpkin takes a bit of effort.