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This gorgeous emerald coloured chutney is many kinds of pretty - pretty beautiful, pretty tasty, pretty versatile, pretty healthy, pretty easy to make...
So go and make it. Pretty please.
Recipe for: Spinach-onion-cabbage chutney
Ingredients:
1 cup spinach leaves
1/2 cup cabbage, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
A good handful of chives
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp urad dal
1 tsp tamarind paste or a gooseberry sized piece of tamarind
5-6 dried red chillies (or to taste)
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (optional)
2 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 fresh or frozen curry leaves
Salt to taste
Method:
1. Heat the oil and when it shimmers, add the mustard seeds and cover the pan till they finish popping.
2. Now add the urad dal, red chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida powder. Stir-fry till the urad dal turns a pale golden brown and the red chillies are a shiny darker shade.
3. Add the garlic, chives and onion and stir-fry till the onions start to soften and turn translucent.
4. Add the cabbage and fry it till it wilts,
then the spinach until it wilts too.
Let this mixture cool.
5. Pick out the red chillies and grind them to a smooth paste with the tamarind and a couple of spoonfuls of the vegetable mixture.
6. Now add the rest of the cabbage-onion-spinach mix
and grind it to a fairly smooth consistency - but not to a puree. It should be a little bit coarse.
7. Remove the chutney to a bowl, add salt to taste and mix well. This can be mixed with rice or eaten as a side dish/dip with chapaties, dosas, idlis etc.
RECIPE: SPINACH-ONION-CABBAGE CHUTNEY
Ingredients:
1 cup spinach leaves
1/2 cup cabbage, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
A good handful of chives
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tbsp oil
2 tsp urad dal
1 tsp tamarind paste or a gooseberry sized piece of tamarind
5-6 dried red chillies (or to taste)
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (optional)
2 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 fresh or frozen curry leaves
Salt to taste
Method:
1. Heat the oil and when it shimmers, add the mustard seeds and cover the pan till they finish popping.
2. Now add the urad dal, red chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida powder. Stir-fry till the urad dal turns a pale golden brown and the red chillies are a shiny darker shade.
3. Add the garlic, chive and onion and stir-fry till the onions start to soften and turn translucent.
4. Add the cabbage and fry it till it wilts, then the spinach until it wilts too. Let this mixture cool.
5. Pick out the red chillies and grind them to a smooth paste with the tamarind and a couple of spoonfuls of the vegetable mixture..
6. Now add the rest of the cabbage-onion-spinach mix and grind it to a fairly smooth consistency - but not to a puree. It should be a little bit coarse.
7. Remove the chutney to a bowl, add salt to taste and mix well. This can be mixed with rice or eaten as a side dish/dip with chapaties, dosas, idlis etc.
I guess I could have called this a vattha kuzhambu except for the fact that I carefully refrained from using manthakkali or chundakkai vatthal (dried berries). This puli kuzhambu tastes very nice, if you ask me. If, however, you DON'T want to ask me, I guess you'll have to make it and discover this fact for yourself, won't you?
Recipe for: Flaxseed puli kuzhambu (tamarind gravy)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp dry-roasted flaxseeds
1 htbsp sambar powder
2 tsp rice flour
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
Lime-sized amount of tamarind/2 tsp tamarind paste
2 tsp tuvar dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp vendhayam/fenugreek seeds
5-6 fresh/frozen curry leaves
1 tbsp gingelly oil/nallennai
Salt to taste
4-5 cups water
Method:
1. Pound or grind the flaxseeds to a fine powder.
2. Dissolve the tamarind in 4 cups water (or extract the pulp from the dry tamarind). Reserve.
3. Heat the oil in a pan, add the asafoetida powder, tuvar dal, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, and mustard seeds. Cover and let the seeds pop, let the dal turn golden brown,
then pour in the tamarind water.
Let this come to a brisk boil.
4. While it is coming up to the boil, mix together the flaxseed powder, sambar powder and rice flour,
add 1/4 cup water and whisk to a pourable mixture without lumps.
5. Now pour this into the tamarind water and stir it in, along with salt to taste.
6. Keep the heat on medium and let the kuzhambu simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavours come together, and for it to thicken. Then add the peanuts and allow the kuzhambu to boil for 5 minutes more.
7. The longer the kuzhambu sits, the better it will taste. Reheat before serving, along with steamed rice and any kootu or vegetable curry.
RECIPE: FLAXSEED PEANUT PULI KUZHAMBU (TAMARIND GRAVY)
Ingredients:
2 tbsp dry-roasted flaxseeds
1 htbsp sambar powder
2 tsp rice flour
1/4 cup roasted peanuts
Lime-sized amount of tamarind/2 tsp tamarind paste
2 tsp tuvar dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp vendhayam/fenugreek seeds
5-6 fresh/frozen curry leaves
1 tbsp gingelly oil/nallennai
Salt to taste
4-5 cups water
Method:
1. Pound or grind the flaxseeds to a fine powder.
2. Dissolve the tamarind in 4 cups water (or extract the pulp from the dry tamarind). Reserve.
3. Heat the oil in a pan, add the asafoetida powder, tuvar dal, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, and mustard seeds. Cover and let the seeds pop, let the dal turn golden brown, then pour in the tamarind water. Let this come to a brisk boil.
4. While it is coming up to the boil, mix together the flaxseed powder, sambar powder and rice flour, add 1/4 cup water and whisk to a pourable mixture without lumps.
5. Now pour this into the tamarind water and stir it in, along with salt to taste.
6. Keep the heat on medium and let the kuzhambu simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavours come together, and for it to thicken. Then add the peanuts and allow the kuzhambu to boil for 5 minutes more.
7. The longer the kuzhambu sits, the better it will taste. Reheat before serving, along with steamed rice and any kootu or vegetable curry.
How do you come up with new recipes? Or new variations on old recipes? According to what I’ve read about professional chefs and from what semi-professional food bloggers write on their super-professional looking blogs, they spend hours (days, weeks, years... a lifetime?) experimenting with new flavours and colours and fusions and whatnot. They’re never discouraged by failure, they never tire of trying the same recipe over and over until they get it right, they spend every spare moment away from their actual jobs on perfecting a recipe – and when the dish makes its triumphal entry onto a menu or a blog, it’s to the exciting fanfare of self-blown trumpets ably backed up by the fluting of friends, fans and family.
All very impressive, and all very well... but what I’ve always wanted to know is - who actually eats the end results of those endless experimentations? It’s easy enough with the successful results, but what if the recipe isn’t to anybody’s taste? What about the downright failures? (Ok, the dustbin would be the grateful recipient there, fair enough.) What about the not-so-successful-but-not-dumpworthy-either results? These experimentally creative folk must have mighty accommodating families. Because mine, sadly, isn’t made that way. My family is thrilled to eat the nice things but completely remorseless about shunning the less edible. And if something is not to their taste made one way, there’s no chance that they’d try it made some other way – ESPECIALLY on an experimental basis.
Can’t blame them. I’m that way too. If a recipe is a failure for whatever reason, I never look back. I certainly don’t have the patience or the willingness to try it different ways till I hit upon the right one. There are billions of recipes out there, a few million of which I want to try, so repeatedly trying one recipe just isn’t going to happen. Plus, there’s the question of cost, not to mention food wastage. I’m the first to admit that I could probably do much better in the latter department, so deliberately making something again that wasn’t a success the first time around – nope, not happening.
Now, how I happen upon recipes is through sheer chance - I don't have the imagination or the creativity to actively invent something. My kind of invention is passive. Oh bother, there's that bit of stuff left, I don't want to store it in a teeny box in the fridge... heck, let's see what happens if I just use it in this recipe. And that's how my variations evolve. This one came about because I wanted to finish up the last of the oven-dried tomatoes I'd made two weeks back. So much for experimentation...
Recipe for: Sundried/ovendried tomato coconut thogayal
Ingredients:
1/3 cup grated coconut
2 tbsp sundried or oven-dried tomatoes (not the kind packed in oil)
marble sized piece of dried tamarind OR 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
4-8 dried red chillies (or to taste)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tsp urad dal
10-12 curry leaves
1/8 tsp asafoetida powder
2 tsp oil
Salt to taste
4-6 tbsp hot water as required
Method:
1. Rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain off the water and reserve.
2. Heat the oil in a small pan, then add the asafoetida powder, red chillies, curry leaves, urad dal and garlic, and fry it all on medium heat, stirring, till the dal turns golden brown.
3. Cool, then grind the above (reserving 1/2 tsp of the fried dal) along with 2 tsp coconut and the tamarind to a smooth paste. Then add the rehydrated tomatoes and the rest of the coconut, adding 3-4 tbsp hot water, and grind again to a smooth paste.
4. Remove to a bowl and add salt to taste and the reserved fried urad dal, mixing well to combine thoroughly.
5. Serve with a dollop of ghee/nallennai (gingelly oil) added to steamed rice, or as a side dish for dosas, chapathis, idlis etc.
RECIPE: SUNDRIED/OVENDRIED TOMATO COCONUT THOGAYAL
Ingredients:
1/3 cup grated coconut
2 tbsp sundried or oven-dried tomatoes (not the kind packed in oil)
marble sized piece of dried tamarind OR 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
4-8 dried red chillies (or to taste)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tsp urad dal
10-12 curry leaves
1/8 tsp asafoetida powder
2 tsp oil
Salt to taste
4-6 tbsp hot water as required
Method:
1. Rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain off the water and reserve.
2. Heat the oil in a small pan, then add the asafoetida powder, red chillies, curry leaves, urad dal and garlic, and fry it all on medium heat, stirring, till the dal turns golden brown.
3. Cool, then grind the above (reserving 1/2 tsp of the fried dal) along with 2 tbsp coconut and the tamarind to a smooth paste. Then add the rehydrated tomatoes and the rest of the coconut, adding 3-4 tbsp hot water, and grind again to a smooth paste.
4. Remove to a bowl and add salt to taste and the reserved fried urad dal, mixing well to combine thoroughly.
5. Serve with a dollop of ghee/nallennai (gingelly oil) added to steamed rice, or as a side dish for dosas, chapathis, idlis etc.
I don’t often get the chance to make kothamalli thokku (or thogayal – I tend to use the terms interchangeably in this case) because... does anybody want to take a guess why? No, it’s not because it’s not available in the local supermarkets. Coriander IS available quite easily. It’s just that it does not come particularly cheap – about £1.79 for a small bunch. I usually prefer to wait till I get a chance to go to the Pakistani/Indian shops in Birmingham, where I can get coriander at ridiculous prices... like two very large bunches for about £1.
True, they are not conveniently pre-washed, pre-tidied and pre-packed in plastic boxes like in the supermarkets – these humongous bunches come with soil still attached to the stems/roots, necessitating some amount of prep work at home before you can use them... but that inconvenience is the (non-monetary) price that you pay for the low (monetary) price.
I could grow my own coriander, I suppose, and I have done – but that’s in small quantities for everyday use. Let’s have no more about that. I’m not a farmer. Nor even a proper gardener, really.
Anyway, kothamalli thokku is for those of us that love coriander and don’t find the herb “soapy” or “disgusting”. It doesn’t require any cooking and since it’s basically mainly ground-up coriander leaves and stems, it tastes strongly of – yep, you guessed it, coriander! It tastes even stronger if you don’t have much tolerance for chillies and reduce the dried-red-chilli quotient in the recipe.
(And as an aside, let me add that although I do like flat-leaf parsley, the term “soapy” would apply far more accurately to it than to coriander. Just saying.)
I like kothamalli thokku best as a side for curd rice, although it’s also pretty good with dosas, chapaties, etc (especially mixed in with a small quantity of Greek yogurt). Yum!
Recipe for: Kothamalli thokku
Ingredients:
2-3 bunches coriander (to make about 5 cups chopped)
10-15 dried red chillies (depending on heat and as per taste)
2-3 tbsp urad dal
2 tsp oil
1/2 level tsp asafoetida powder
1/2 small lemon-size tamarind (or 1 htsp tamarind paste)
Salt to taste
Method:
1. Wash the coriander, removing only the woody stems. Spread out to dry on a towel overnight, or dry thoroughly with paper towels.
2. Chop the coriander leaves and stems roughly, to assist with grinding it without using water. (From experience, leaving them whole usually ends with the stems winding themselves around the blade of the mixie - I use Sumeet - and bringing things to a grinding halt. So to speak.)
3. Roast the red chillies in 1/2 tsp oil on med-low heat till they turn a darker colour and are aromatic. Remove to a plate and let cool.
4. Heat the remaining oil and add the asafoetida powder and the urad dal. Fry the dal till it turns golden brown.
Reserve 1/2 tbsp and add the remaining dal to the chillies and let cool.
5. Grind the red chillies, tamarind and dal first coarsely, then add a handful of the chopped coriander.
6. Grind to a smoothish paste
then add another handful of coriander and grind again. Continue as before, adding the remaining coriander bit by bit until it is all ground smoothly. Try to refrain from using any water to grind the coriander, as it will help the thokku last longer.
7. When all the coriander has been used up, add the reserved dal and give it one last whirl to break up the dal a bit - but don't whizz it smooth, the pieces give a pleasing bite to the thokku.
Add salt to taste, then mix well.
8. Store the thokku in the fridge and use a clean dry spoon every time. It makes sense to make small balls of the thokku and store them in a tightly lidded container. To use, take out one thokku ball at a time and store in a separate container, so as to keep the rest from getting inadvertently contaminated.
Finally got a chance to make thengai molagapodi - I've been wanting to do so for ages, but couldnt find a suitable coconut. Last week I got lucky - so here's the result.
This is the recipe my mother gave me, and there are no changes at all. No substitutions either, not even wrt the tamarind. I usually use tamarind paste in my recipes, for convenience, but not this time. A large marble-sized piece of dried tamarind fruit, she'd said, so a large marble-sized piece of dried tamarind was what I used - and with the expected excellent result.
Recipe for: Thengai molagapodi
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh grated coconut
2 tbsp chana dal
2 tbsp urad dal
7-8 dried red chillies (or to taste)
1 large marble-sized piece of dried tamarind
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (optional)
1 tsp oil
Clockwise from top: Grated coconut, urad dal, chana dal, dried red chillies
Method:
1. Heat the oil in a wide pan. Fry the chana dal, urad dal and red chillies till the dals turn golden brown and the chillies are shiny dark red. Remove from the oil and set aside.
2. In the same pan, roast the grated coconut over medium heat, stirring frequently.
3. Roast the coconut until the gratings are a golden brown and give off a nice roasted aroma. This will take at least 10 minutes - dont rush the process and be careful not to burn the coconut.
4. Let it cool, then dry-grind the chillies, dals and tamarind as finely as possible.
5. Add the toasted coconut and salt to taste, and grind to a slightly coarse texture. It shouldnt be a smooth powder.
This podi is good mixed with rice and ghee, or as a side dish for idli, dosa, etc.
