It's a dinosaur!

At my friend Bill's urging, I recently read H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald's magnificent 2014 memoir about the year she spent training a goshawk in the wake of her father's unexpected death. Bill also let me know that Macdonald had just published Vesper Flights, a collection of 41 essays that she likens in her introduction to a Wunderkammer—a sixteenth century "cabinet of curiosities" or wonders—because the essays cover a wide range of topics, most of them dealing with the natural world.

For example, in the second essay, "Nothing Like a Pig," Macdonald writes of her first encounter with a boar, which she describes like this:

When I saw Jurassic Park in the cinema something unexpected happened when the first dinosaur came on screen: I felt a huge, hopeful pressure in my chest and my eyes filled with tears. It was miraculous: a thing I’d seen representations of since I was a child had come alive. Something like this was happening now and it was just as affecting.

This was shockingly familiar to me. I've never seen a wild boar, but I saw Jurassic Park in the theater (twice, the second time while we were waiting for Dylan to be born) and that was my exact reaction to the scene where the main characters see a huge brachiosaurus and some of the other dinosaurs for the first time, while John Williams' famous theme swells in the background. I've always felt like a sap for reacting so emotionally to such a cheesy movie, but reading that Macdonald experienced the same thing, I feel ... what? Kinship? Vindication? I don't know.

 

Of course, they have the weaselly lawyer's first thought on seeing the dinosaurs be, "We're going to make a fortune off this place," but even that can't ruin this scene, which remains one of my favorite moviegoing experiences (right up there with this one 🤣). "Welcome to Jurassic Park!"

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I doubt I'll ever find a chutney that threatens to displace my first love—Dried Cherry Chutney—but this is very good for a change, and certainly better than either of my other relatively plain cranberry sauces. It's a year for doing something different for Thanksgiving anyway.

Cranberry-Apple Chutney

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Time: ~30 minutes (not including cooling time)

I used a combination of chopped dates and figs and whole tart cherries for the dried fruit. Lots of other kinds of dried fruit would work, including apricots, cranberries, and (if Cassie’s not around) raisins.

340 grams (one 12-ounce bag) fresh or frozen (unthawed) cranberries, picked over and rinsed
1 tart apple (such as Pink Lady), peeled, cored, and diced
150 grams (¾ cup) light brown sugar
125 grams (~1 cup) dried fruit, chopped if large (see note)
125 grams (½ cup) orange juice
90 grams (6 tablespoons) apple cider vinegar
21 grams (1 tablespoon) honey
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (you can substitute a more exotic chile like Marash or Aleppo for less heat and more flavor, which is what I did)
a pinch of kosher salt

    1. Stir all of the ingredients together in a 3- to 4- quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then adjust the heat to maintain a very lively, but not violent, simmer. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the cranberries pop and the apple pieces are cooked through. You can crush any recalcitrant berries against the side of the pan with the back of the spoon to help the process along. The total cooking time is about 10 minutes. Taste for seasoning; if the chutney tastes too bitter, stir in a pinch of salt and taste again.*
    2. Let the chutney cool for about 15 minutes. Transfer to one or more jars. Store in the fridge for up to a month. Makes 3 cups.

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*I learned from Samin Nosrat in Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat that salt "reduces our perception of bitterness.... Though we typically turn to sugar to balance out bitter flavors ..., it turns out that salt masks bitterness much more effectively than sugar." It worked like a charm here.