MyMusingsSangSpeak- Pet Puja -Kawath/Kavath Chutney (Wood Apple Chutney)

Kawath/Kavath Chutney (Wood Apple Chutney)

Kawath/Kavath Chutney (Wood Apple Chutney) is one of my favourite dishes and I try to make it as often as possible, though the fruit is quite rarely available all over India.

The scientific name of Kawath (Kabeeth/Kavooth/Wood Apple) is Limonia acidissima and it is native to mainly Indian Asian Subcontinent. It is also known as curd apple, monkey fruit or elephant apple. This fruit is generally consumed on the fast of Mahashivratri day and has religious significance.

The fruit has a tough outer cover of wooden texture and the inner pulp is very sour and has seeds. It has a heady aroma and I love this fruit to bits. The tree has some medicinal benefits and the fruit is rich in Vitamin A and B.

The fruit pulp has high content of pectin and hence, one can make jams and jellies too out of it. One can also make a sherbet with lovely sweet sour taste with amazingly fresh aroma. The fruit is generally consumed in chutney form, either sweet with jaggery/sugar or a tangy one with little salt and chilly powder. I prefer the sweet chutney. It is so tasty and tempting that one can just go on eating, but, one of course needs to be careful as it contains high amount of sugar.

It is quite difficult to choose a wood apple for eating. Go for the fresh one with a lovely fragrance.

A sweetmeat known as Kawath/Kavath Barfi is also available in shops near Kolhapur Mahalaxmi Mandir and this comes generally from Kurundwad, a place in Kolhapur district. This is a hard boiled sugary speciality, I am sure all Kolhapuris can relate to it.

Ingredients

Wood Apple - 1 no

Jaggery - One and a half times or twice the amount of the fruit pulp

Method

As the wood apple cover is tough, you require a heavy object/hammer to break it. Remove all pulp and set aside. Cut jaggery into small pieces and mix it with the fruit pulp well with your hand. Leave for two to three hours to allow good mixing of pulp and jaggery. The chutney tastes good as an accompaniment with chapatti or one can eat it just like that.

Note - The colour of the chutney varies with the fruit, extra ripe fruit will be dark brown. The colour of jaggery may also be light or dark brown.