Cranberry & Pomegranate Chutney: Swati Khurana

Swati Khurana, Sometime, Sometime (Bollywood Mash-up series), 2008. RT 4:00. Courtesy the artist.

About a week ago, I posted a note on Facebook and Twitter asking artists about their Thanksgiving menus. Swati Khurana responded with excitement about her homemade chutney of cranberries, pomegranate and raspberries, and has generously shared her recipe.

Born in Indian, raised in the Hudson Valley, and today based in Brooklyn, Khurana's work has been shown locally at Bronx Museum, Queens Museum, Bose Pacia Modern, Center for Book Arts, Exit Art, Momenta Art, Jersey City Museum, Art-in-General, WhiteBox and Rush Arts; and internationally in Costa Rica, The Gambia (West Africa), Italy, India and Nepal. Her many accolades include the Jerome Foundation Travel & Study Grant, Artist-in-Marketplace at the Bronx Museum, Aljira’s Emerge program, and residencies at Henry Street Settlement, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Pace University, BCAT/Rotunda Gallery, and Kartong Village Development Committee. She will present her newest work in a solo exhibition at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai in January 2010.

Ingredients

1 large pomegranate, seeded

1-2 packages of raspberries, small

1 bag of fresh cranberries

sugar or agave nectar, to taste

chopped fresh mint, to taste

fresh squeezed lime juice, to taste

Instructions
Boil cranberries in a saucepan; as they begin to open up and split in half, add sugar or agave. When cranberries are tender, remove saucepan from stove and drain. Place cranberries in a large bowl. Add raspberries and use a masher to mix the fruits. Add more sugar or agave as needed. Add fresh squeezed lime juice and mash again. Toss in the seeds of a large pomegranate and stir with a spoon (do not mash the seeds). Stir in chopped mint. Taste and add more lime juice, sugar or agave as desired. Chill and serve. "This chutney is excellent over ice-cream or yogurt, on toast or sandwiches, as a side to poultry or meat, and on its own," says Khurana.

Wedding Trousseau (detail), 2009. Ink and embroidery on cloth. Courtesy the artist.

A founding member of the South Asian Women's Creative Collective (SAWCC), Khurana's work is currently on view in Domestic Policy -- SAWCC's 12th annual visual arts exhibition -- at The Guild, New York. Curator Rocio Aranda-Alvarado writes of the artist's new suite of embroideries titled Wedding Trousseau:

Domestic policies (often influenced by religious ideas) guide the laws of marriage. Within the traditions and history of marriage, additional ceremonies, rituals, and beliefs accompany the entire rite of passage. Swati Khurana’s "Wedding Trousseau" relates to these rituals and their influence on gender and the social roles of women. She notes: “To me, the seductive promises of rituals comprise a huge part of domestic policy.” The marriage rituals and their power to inspire particular beliefs or to manipulate behaviors are explored throughout these images, in which the artist presents drawings of her own wedding and its anticipated events. She had given the drawings on fabric to her grandmothers and asked them, without additional instructions, to simply embroider on them. With this gesture, the entire trousseau of shawls, blankets, and saris that are hand-sewn, knit, crocheted, or embroidered is reconsidered, an additional layer to the already complex formalities of a symbolic act.

Khurana acknowledges her grandmothers, Pushpa Khurana and Sharda Sethi, for their collaborative and creative spirit in making Wedding Trousseau, as well as Seema Khurana, Kanika Jaiswal and Firelei Baez without whom this body of work would not have been possible. Domestic Policy continues through December 12. Look out for a Contemporary Confections interview with the artist in the spring.