On Relish

Settlers we are, most of us, seekers of niche, routine, a core of reassuring sameness around which may pivot the rest of real life with its bedlam and asymmetries.

Some of us, the unusually punctual perhaps, are more ingrained with habits and customs than others, preferring for example, to lay out a particular breakfast cereal (bran twigs ) at night with not one but two paper napkins ( edges square to the table ' s edge ) covering a certain bowl which has, over the years, proven to be just the right size and weight, with a prudent rim and a pleasant (unobtrusive) decoration that has come to symbolize in a small and daily way, our rightness of being.

A flawless breakfast: the first victory over chaos. Such thoughts support a parade of customs which might otherwise want rationale.

Where some thrive in a climate of fixed patterns, to others it is the stuff of madness. Repetitious work is a nightmare of constraint. It is forever trying to put on a garment which is too tight. It is the mundane collecting around us palpably, invading moving in like a pernicious ground fog from the damp-pooling meadows. Like a hair shirt without redeeming. Blinders on a creature ready with wings.

Through moderation,the classic path to wisdom, the humdrum is accepted as an orderly base of practice, a layer, a seedbed out of which spring volunteers of innovation, insight, design,the opus, accompanying that sudden, occasional breath of wonder that clears anxiety away.

We need both balance and imbalance, of course, steady reliable exercises and some bell ringing , too.

In light of this I shall toss in, from my kitchen, a most worthy condiment in hopes that it will add some pizazz to the rhythmic reappearance of that most common and prevailing domestic dilemma; what to fix for dinner.

What can we add to the existing circuit of recipes that we know by heart and can prepare quickly, almost without looking, those regular meals that celebrate the safe landings of the family at the end of a blissfully ordinary day. No disasters, no one is ill, no one lost or astray.

This is the comforting security of commonness wherein the ordinary is at its best, supplanted by a generous dose of piquant.

I propose to you now, with the late summer peaches still in the markets in all their rose-dusk glory, that you purchase eighteen of the freestone canning variety and put together this easy version of Peach Chutney.

I guarantee that it will add a liberating zest to the periodic main course familiars--pork chops, stir fry, roasts and barbecued meats, wild game--as well as the curries and rice dishes it traditionally squires.

Peel and dice those peaches. Veteran canners know that a quick scald in boiling water makes the peels slip off like tired little one piece suits.

If you want to do some measuring at this point, it will come to more or less 8 cups of fruit.

Mix the peaches with:

2 Tbsp. red chili powder

1 C. crystallized ginger, chopped

2 tbsp. yellow mustard seed

1 Tbsp. salt

1 quart vinegar

2 1/4 C. (l box) brown sugar.

To these ingredients, add:

1 C. seedless raisins

1 medium onion, finely diced

1-2 cloves of garlic, very finely minced

Mix together well.

Bring to a simmer in a good heavy kettle and stir frequently for an hour or so, until the chutney is a deep brown and rather thick.

Pack into sterilized jars, cap, fasten the rings, turning them all upside down for 10 minutes to seal.

Now it will keep until you know you need some fragrant spicy relish in your life.