Grape-Sprout Salad- a little bit of goodness wipes out bad memories

"It is not bitter at all", I heard them say, and fool that I am, I believed them. You know what bitter means only after you sprout fenugreek seeds, and plonk a bit in your mouth thinking it can't be much worse than soaked fenugreek seeks- they are. Much worse.

I tried adding salt, then vinegar. Nothing killed the bitterness, or even masked it. But when I found myself thinking along the lines of dousing it in cream and honey, I decided that if Mamma's dictum of "never waste food" extended to fenugreek sprouts, it was because she had never tasted them herself. 
I did the only sensible thing I could- washed off all the salt and vinegar, and threw the seeds into an empty pot. Watch this space for further adventures of the fenugreek sapling kind.

The entire experience left a very bitter taste in the mouth- literally, and I needed to do something drastic to make things better. Luckily, I had a handful of moong sprouts handy.

Cut about 10-12 grapes into quarters.
Mix well with a handful of moong sprouts and 1 tsp vinegar.
Drizzle brown sugar (I used 1 tsp, but use more if you prefer).
Curl up on a comfy sofa and indulge.

Grape raita

With grapes flooding the market, this has become one of my go-to dishes. Though I have made this several times and refined the technique, I am posting it only now, because I never thought to take a picture before this.

Blend about 15-20 grapes (you can use up all those squishy-squashy grapes that nobody wants) in the mixer, and strain well (this is necessary, because the ground skin doesn't taste good- you can, however, eat the strained part- it is lovely).
Add to 1 cup curds, and beat well with rock salt to taste, and 1 tsp of honey.
When will mixed, quarter 5-8 grapes and mix well with the curd-grapes mixture.

Tastes really good even as a stand alone dish.

Angoor ka chutney

I did have a bunch of "iffy" grapes which I was thinking of mashing into curds and having. But since the idea got planted in my mind, decided to adapt my strawberry chutney recipe for grapes. At the last moment, googled to see if I could find any recipes, and found a few that required onions and mustard seeds.
Grapes and onions!!!! The combination seemed absolutely counter intuitive, so I had to try it out. Turned out to be quite different from what I thought a grape chutney should, but lovely all the same.

1 cup grapes quartered (half and half of green and red grapes was recommended, but I used a mixture of all the grapes that for various reasons get left uneaten)
1 medium onion chopped small
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 inch ginger grated
1 1/2 tbsp vinegar (less if grapes are sour)
1 1/2 tsp pepper powder
3 tsp sugar
salt to taste
cooking oil

Heat oil, temper with mustard seeds, and fry onions till they turn transparent.
Add grapes, ginger, vinegar and pepper powder, and cook for about 10 minutes.
Add salt and sugar, stir well, and cook for 2 - 3 minutes till most of the water released by the grapes evaporates.