Add Flavour To Your Snacks With Chef Kunal Kapur’s Ramphal Chutney

When one thinks of Ramphal or Indian persimmon, one thinks of an unassuming fruit that looks exotic and but has a rather underwhelming taste. Ramphal has a mild sweet taste, with an apricot-like texture. It shares a resemblance with a tomato. It won’t be wrong to say that Ramphal is a severely underrated fruit. Recently, chef and restaurateur Kunal Kapur, best known for hosting and judging MasterChef India, gave this fruit an upgrade. Kapur made a simple but flavourful chutney with Ramphal. The special thing about this chutney is it does not require fancy ingredients or equipment.

Kapur first removes the leafy portion of the fruit and cuts the fruit into thin slices. Then he takes 3/4 cup of water in a pan and adds 1/ 3 cup of vinegar, 1/ 3 cup of powdered sugar, one tablespoon of minced garlic, 1/ 3 cup of salt, and some chilli flakes into the water. At the end, he puts 200 grams of sliced Ramphal into the mix and stirs it properly. He cooks this mix for 12 minutes. In the end, he puts the mixture into a blender and blends it till it turns into a smooth chutney. Just like that the Rampal chutney is ready.

The sweetness of persimmon and sugar, paired with salt, garlic, and chilli flakes gives this chutney a balanced sweet and savoury flavour. This simple cooking tutorial has gathered thousands of likes. Commenting on it, an Instagram user wrote, “Chutney looks good Kunalji I was expecting ice cream recipe with persimmon because of its texture and sweet taste.” Another person enquired, “You took the raw ones?? Won’t that give bitter taste??”

People also shared the local names of Indian persimmon. An Instagram user wrote, “The fruit is locally grown in Kullu district of Himachal pradesh, India and is known as ‘Japani’”. Another person remarked, “It’s not ramphal, its amarphal.”

Ramphal grows all over India with slight moderations. Persimmons are native to China, Northeast India, and northern Indochina. However, now they grow all over the world. Persimmons are low in calories but high in fibre content, which makes them a good choice for weight control and alleviating gut-related issues. They have a high count of antioxidants, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, and micronutrients like magnesium. Around the world, people use persimmons to make jams, fruit preserves, tea cakes, or chutneys.