Mango Chutney & Sour Cream Dip
It’s always interesting to notice what small moments, what details one remembers. Of course there are all the grand moments, the big events, that carry so much importance in our lives. But sometimes what we recall can be much more mundane.
Cynthia was my best friend in high school and we lived on opposite ends of Bleeker Street in Manhattan, she in Washington Square Village and I at Abingdon Square. How often we would walk from one home to the other, how many sleepovers we had, how much we visited places all over the City, and we even attended summer camp together for one year, after we realized that the camp she had been attending for years, Camp Pinecliffe, was the camp my mother and my aunt had attended when they were kids. I loved it and remember it all fondly!
And to this day, I still remember that I was once at her apartment when her mother, Anita, was having a party, and she served a dip made with sour cream and chutney. I never got an actual recipe, but I figured out the right proportions. And I still make that dip today, and think about when I first tasted it. Sometimes I’ve even made just a couple spoonfuls of it as a secret snack to enjoy with a few potato chips when I would get home from teaching and no one else was home yet.
Yesterday we got a box of produce from Misfits Market, and one of the items was a bunch of celery. Hank really doesn’t like celery much at all, so it’s up to me to eat it. While celery isn’t my favorite, I’ll happily enjoy its cool crunch with a good dip, and so I mixed up a bowl of this favorite from Cynthia’s mom to have with my lunch today, and with snacks over the few days as well.
Mango Chutney & Sour Cream Dip
3 Tablespoons mango chutney; Major Grey’s is fine
½ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons curry powder, or to taste
Place the chutney in a small bowl. If there are any large chunks in the chutney, be sure to chop them into small pieces before mixing with the other ingredients. Add the sour cream and curry powder and stir to combine. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Different versions of curry powder and even different brands of the same type can vary in strength and spiciness, so depending on what you use, it may need more than 2 teaspoons.
Serve with chips and/or crudités.