Amma's Mango Chutney

Mum has arrived on holidays and is here with me, so I'm enjoying every bit if her as long as stays. It's awesome to have her stay, because she is in charge of the kitchen, and then people in the house can now ratify themselves with her cooking, than give their valuable opinions on mine. So while she is here, she taught me a mango chutney, slightly different from the regular I know. It goes well with a biriyani.

Ingredients:
Grated coconut - 1/2cup, generous
Raw green mango - 1 medium sized
Dry red chillies - 3
Curry leaves - 1 stalk
Onion - 1 medium, finely sliced
Salt to taste

Heat a pan over low fire. Add the coconut, curry leaves, dry red chillies, onion, salt and continuously stirring, simply roast till the coconut turns evenly brown. Once the coconut is browned evenly, into a food processor, add the mango and pulse till the mango is well chopped. Then add the coconut and blitz till the mango and coconut are well combined. Do not add water to the chutney. Scrape the sides of the bowl timely to well incorporate the ingredients. And there you have it, a chutney ready, to be served with rice or biriyani.

Hot dosa with Brinjal Sambhar & Mint chutney

My chechi (domestic help), made this combination during the time I was sick and was literally bedridden for a week. She said "acca try this combination, don't know if you'd would like it, because you're used to the regular chutney and sambhar. I tell you this is in tamil style "romba nallathe" combo. I tried this today after having tasted what I was served atleast 5 months back..my words echo"mein khush or tummy bhi khush"!!

Brinjal Sambhar

Ingredients
Brinjal- 2 small quartered.
Green gram  - 1/2cup
MTR Sambhar powder - 2tbs
Tamarind paste - 1tbs
Jaggery or sugar - 1tbs or more
Onion - 1
Coriander leaves to garnish

Soak the green gram in water for about 5hours. Cook the green gram till it is soft and keep aside. In the meantime fry the sambhar powder and then add the onion and quartered brinjal and saute. Add tamarind paste  to the brinjal and a cup of water. Add salt and the cooked green gram and cook till the brinjal becomes soft. Once cooked, add chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Mint Chutney


Ingredients:
Mint leaves - 2 bunches
Green chilly - 1
Salt to taste
Water as required

Grind all the ingredients together. Serve with dosa and sambhar.

Mutton Masala with Mint 'n' White Radish Chutney~ The Punjabi Way!

One of the shows I saw on TLC, by Madhur Jaffrey, this specific episode was on Punjabi Cuisine. She had demonstrated authentic Punjabi style lamb chops. I have substituted lamb chops for regular mutton pieces and tweaked the recipe a bit....but the end result is fantatisco!

Ingredients:

Mutton chops/ pieces - 1kg

Ginger - 3tbs finely chopped

Garlic - 6-8pods chopped

Tomato - 1 roughly chopped

Onion - 2medium finely chopped

Cayenne Powder - 1 heaped tbs

Yoghurt - 300ml

Punjabi Garam Masala - 3-4tsps

Roasted Cumin Powder - 1tsp

Lemon Juice - 3tbs

Freshly chopped coriander leaves

Into a large pan, pour some oil and put in the onions, saute for a minute, then add the tomatoes. Saute the tomatoes for about 3minutes, add in the yoghurt, cayenne powder, salt, ginger garlic paste and the mutton pieces. Mix and bring the curry to a gentle boil. Lower the heat, cover and cook the mutton for about 45 minutes and the mutton is almost tender. Then add the roasted cumin seeds and simmer for 15minutes till the mutton is tender and the curry thickens to a sauce. Then add the garam masala and lemon juice, stir well. Add in the chopped coriander. Serve hot.

To make the Punjabi Garam Masala

The spice combinations in garam masala vary in different parts of India: 5 tbsps coriander seeds, 3 tbsps cumin seeds, 2 1/2 tbsps black peppercorns, 2 black cardamom seeds, 2 inch cinnamon stick, 4-5 cloves, 1/6 nutmeg. Put the coriander and the cumin into a cast-iron frying-pan over a medium heat. Stir until lightly roasted. Allow to cool. Grind with the remaining ingredients in a clean coffee grinder and store in a tightly lidded jar.

Mint and White Radish Chutney

Ingredients:
Mint leaves - 2cups
White Radish - 1 chopped (which is about 270gms)
Green chilly - 1-2 chopped
Onion - 1 chopped
Lemon Juice - 2tbs
Salt to taste


Combine all the ingredients into a blender and add water as needed

Good Friday - Rice Gruel/ Rice Kanji

Good Friday is the victory over man's failure to death and sin; while Jesus exchanged sin and death for redemption and grace.

Rice Gruel is the typical Keralite lunch on Good Friday accompanied with greem gram, spiced buttermilk, pappad and pickle....

Greem Gram Thoran

Ingredients:

Green Gram - 1cup

Coconut Gratings - 1/4cup

Button onioins - 5sliced

Garlic - 2 cloves crushed

Cumin powder - 1/2tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4tsp

Salt to taste

Mustard seeds - 1/4tsp

Curry leaves - 2sprigs

Dried Red chillies - 2 broken

Cook the greem gram in 2 cups of water until it becomes soft and the pan juice dries up (If additional water is required add water inermittently to cook the dal). Grind the coconut gratings, cumin powder, garlic, a couple of button onions to a coarse paste and place into the cooked gram. Cover and cook until the masala is cooked through. Temper the mustard seeds, curry leaves and button onions to a golden colour. Fry the red chilli and turn the tempering into the cooked dal. Stir well and serve.

Spiced Buttermilk

Ingredients:

Yogurt - 1cup

Water - 1cup

Green chilli- 2 thinly sliced

Button onions - 2 thinly sliced

Ginger - 1/4tsp

Few curry leaves 

Salt to taste

Blitz yogurt in a bowl until smooth, add water and rest of the ingredients and stir well. Chill until serving time.

Mango Chutney

Ingredients:

Raw mango - 1 whole peeled, de-seeded and cut into smal pieces

Coconut gratings - 1cup

Button onions - 4

Green chilly - 2

Cumin powder - 1/4tsp

Salt to taste

Grind all the ingredients to a paste adding water little by little. Serve immediately with the kanji.

Rava Dosa and Red Chilli Chutney

It had to be a different type of dosa this time...tried a version of rava dosa ~ simple and satisfying with chutney.

Ingredients:

Plain Flour - 1cup

Semolina - 1cup

Yogurt - 1cup

Rice Flour - 1cup

Jeera powder - 2 tsp

Green chilies - 3-4 nos chopped

Coriander leaves little chopped

Curry leaves a few

Water for the batter

Oil for cooking

Salt to taste

Mix maida, rava and flour together. Add jeera, green chilies, curd, coriander leaves, curry leaves and salt mix with enough water to make dosa batter. Keep it aside for 2 hrs. And onto a hot tava, spread the batter to make dosa, and serve hot with chilli coconut chutney.  

Red Chilli Chutney

Ingredients:

Dry Red Chillies - 4

Coconut grated - 1cup

Shallots - 2 chopped

Salt to taste

Water

Mustard seeds - 1/2tsp

Curry leaves a few

Shallots - 1/2tsp sliced

Roast the chillies into a frying pan till light brown colour. Grind the chillies, coconut in a dry grinder to a smooth paste and then liquidise it with shallots and water. Temper the mustard seeds, curry leaves and shallots and pour over the chutney.

Steaming Idlis and Tomato Onion Express Chutney!

I'm like an upset apple cart when it comes to grating a coconut. For my morning chutney this time, I had some coconut gratings stashed in a zip-pouch in my freezer, like I always do!. My idlis though are made from ready- made batter, which I procure fresh from Nilgris Supermarket that's just a hop away from my apartment. Cheating isn't it?

Tomato Onion Chutney

Ingredients:
Tomato - 2 ripe roughly chopped
Onion - 2 medium finely chopped
Coconut gratings - 3tbs to 4 tbs
Mustard - 1tsp
Fennel - 1/4tsp
Green chilly - 1 finely shopped
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves - 1tbs to sprinkle
Salt to taste

Saute the onion till transparent. While sauteing the onions add in the salt, to quicken the process of frying the onion. Add in the tomatoes and saute till nice and soft. Add the green chilly, coconut gratings, fennel and saute again for a minute. Take off from the flame and blend into a grinder. For the tempering, splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves, add the ground chutney warm it through, take care not to boil. Sprinkle coriander leaves and serve.

Idli Batter

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 1cup
Urad dal - 1/2cup
Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2tsp
Salt to taste
Soak the rice and urad dal long with the fenugreek seeds in two separate vessels for about 3-4 hours. Grind the urad dal to a smooth paste adding water little by little. Then add the rice and grind to a smooth paste again by adding water little by little. Mix them both, add salt to taste and leave it to ferment overnight. If the batter has reached a thick consistency it could be used to make idlis. Grease the idli moulds with oil and fill each mould about 2//3rds full and steam for 5 minutes on high flame and another 5minutes on low flame. Allow to cool before scooping them out of the mould.

Tip: Do not fret if there are no coconut gratings at all, the chutney is just as tasty without coconut. I have tried the version without the coconut, and you'd still end up a superb chutney.