Maybe I’m just not enough of a foodie, and maybe I should go to the farmer’s market more diligently. But I did not know that this existed:

Do not attempt to adjust the color settings on you monitor. Because this is going to be the purplest meal, and it all started with an innocent purple bell pepper. Then it turned into this:

Purple bell peppers, purple potatoes, purple onions, huckleberries, red grapes, and blueberries. I know it’s lacking cabbage and eggplant, but after boiling loads of red cabbage for a “science experiment” many, many years ago, I haven’t looked at the stuff the same way since.  And I didn’t think of eggplant until I was leaving the market, but I’m sticking with the “that’s too obvious” excuse and moving on. On to chutney.

But first: Britons, there is an important lesson that American women have known for a very long time. Every domestic, creative thing you’ve ever thought to do has already been done by Martha Stewart, and she’s done it better than you. She has magazines, books, tv shows, radio…she is everywhere in America. We all heaved a sigh of relief when she was arrested for insider trading because at least there was one area we could feel morally superior. Then again, she did house arrest in style on a 153-acre estate. Rough life.

Anyway, one of my favorite recipes, pork tenderloin with blueberry chutney, is from her site. It is healthy, easy, quick, and completely delicious. And chutney is so easy to fiddle with but not mess it up. In this iteration, I used fresh blueberries instead of frozen, ginger paste instead of fresh, and half a red onion instead of a shallot, because that’s what I could find (and I like my chutneys a bit more savory).

Since it’s pretty much “Throw in pot, go!” there isn’t a whole lot else to say about it, but remember to add the vinegar in right at the end, it brings a better “zip” to the taste that way. If you add it too early, it tends to boil off. Other than that, the recipe pretty much speaks for itself:

Directions

Heat broiler with rack set 4 inches from heat. In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, grapes, ginger, shallot, and 1/2 cup water; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-high; cook, stirring occasionally, until grapes break down and mixture thickens, 20 to 25 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon vinegar.

It also looks a bit ghoulish, as it’s so dark, so it doesn’t photograph terribly well.

For the pork, I picked up some of these tenderloin bad boys:

I just rubbed some pepper and salt on each side, and threw them in a preheated pan with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I should be more precise with meat, but I cook it on one side until you can see the white from the cooking go about halfway up the side, about 5 minutes, and then flip it and when it looks like it’s cooked all the way through, I cut it open to check.

I fried up the potatoes and some onions, which was trickier than I’d anticipated because potatoes that are a deep, dark purple all the way through were a little hard to tell when they were cooked. Tossed the peppers, some more onions, and some spring mix in some balsamic vinegar.  Bring on the purple:

And the huckleberries? Dessert! Except…um…well, it went too fast. I made Huckleberry-Oatmeal Ice Cream, and said “well, I’ll get pictures tomorrow when there’s light,” but the ice cream never saw the light of day.  But here’s one of the hand pies I made with the leftover blueberries & huckleberries:

These aren’t fancy.  I just tossed the berries with a fistful of cornstarch, added sugar until it tasted right, and cut the shapes out of pre-fab pie crust. Filled ‘em, pinched the sides together, and baked for 20 minutes at 350°F. Berry leftovers are the best!