Coconut Chutney

For the last month mega blogging marathon (BM) we cooked a lot and many of us did not get to post all the recipes we cooked for the BM. For this month’s regular marathons, we decided to have ‘unused posts from Indian states’ as one of the themes to publish the recipes we never got to post last month. For this week that is my theme. Starting today, for the next 3 days I will be posting recipes that I cooked for last month’s BM but did not post.

When I made Kanchipuram idlies for Tamil Nadu, I also made some coconut chutney to go with it. That coconut chutney is my first post under for this marathon. This chutney can be made with fresh coconut or dry coconut. However, the quantity of coconut varies depending on the coconut used. I would like to say I used fresh coconut but that might be incorrect. I bought a whole coconut in March to make aviyal for Kerala but ended up cooking something else. I never got to use the coconut and last month when I made the idli, I thought of using up the coconut. When I broke open the coconut, the water in it had all dried up and coconut was not very fresh but it wasn’t very dry either. It was more towards fresher side so I used the quantities that were mentioned for fresh coconut.

This is very quick chutney that can be put together in matter of minutes. If the coconut is already grated, all that needs to be done is grind together the coconut with fried gram and green chilies, and lastly pour over the tempering over the ground chutney.

Source: Dakshin – Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan
Total Time: 20 – 25 minutes
Preparation: 15 – 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 3 – 5 minutes
Serves: 4 – 5

Ingredients:

• 6 tbsp. Fresh Coconut grated or 8 tbsp. Flaked Coconut
• 4 tbsp. Fried Gram Dal / Roasted Chana Dal / Putnalu / Daliya
• 6 – 8 Green Chilies (adjust to taste)
• 1 small Bunch of Coriander Leaves / Cilantro / Fresh Kotmir
• ½” Ginger or approximately 1 tsp. chopped Ginger
• 1 tbsp. Homemade Tamarind Paste or Pulp of a small marble sized Tamarind
• ¾ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)

Tempering

• 2 tsp. Oil
• 1 tsp. Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp. Cumin Seeds
• 1 tsp. Black Gram Dal ~ Urad Dal
• 1 Red Chili broken into half
• 1/8 – ½ tsp. Asafoetida Powder
• 2 – 4 Curry Leaves

Preparation:

• Grind together coconut, fried gram dal, green chilies, ginger, coriander leaves, tamarind, salt and grind to a paste. Add water as requited to make a paste.
• Heat oil in a pan for tempering. Once the oil is hot, add mustard, cumin, black gram dal, red chilies asafetida and curry leaves. When the seeds splutter and red chili is lightly roasted, remove form fire.
• Cool the tempering lightly and add it to the chutney.
• Serve chutney with dosa, idli and vada.

This day in 2011 – Shahi Gobhi

Events: Linking this to Fabulous Feast Friday, a linky party started by Mireille. This weekend I am hosting edition # 15 along with my co-host Pavani. This is also my entry for this week’s Cooking from Cookbook Challenge.