Onion Chutney (Onion Dip)

Onion Chutney (Onion Dip)

When I first came to UK, I was a stay at home wife for three weeks. During that time, I would have toasted bread dipped in hummus for snack and I still remember the comfort it gave me. I then stopped having hummus for some reason and resumed just recently. While trying to figure out how to make my own hummus, I realised it could have a lot of oil hiding in it. Ofcourse, you get the low fat ones but that is not for me. I was recently looking for a variety of chutney recipes as I was getting bored of the three chutneys I usually make. Vah chef had onion chutney on his site and it looked very inviting. This is pretty much his recipe but I have not even used half as many red chillies as he has. This would be a mild chutney but feel free to add more red chillies. This goes very well with idli, dosa upma etc. and also with bread. You can use this as a dip in places where you may use hummus. You can also use this as a spread in your sandwich (you could skip the tempering for this). As it pretty much is just sautéed onions, I think it will even count towards your one of five a day! Now for the recipe...

4 onions, I used white, chopped

1 small tomato

1 small lime size ball of tamarind

3-5 dry red chillies (this would yield a mild chutney, increase if you want a hot one)

2 heaped tablespoon roasted Bengal gram or you can use cashew nuts too

Salt to taste

Cooking oil

For tempering:

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Few curry leaves

½ teaspoon urd dal

Heat a kadai and add some oil. Once hot, add the chillies

Once they become crisp, add the onions and couple of minutes later add the tomatoes

Cook until onions are done, not browned though. Then add the tamarind flakes and cook for couple of minutes

Add required salt and allow to cool. Once cooled, add the roasted Bengal gram (daria) and grind to paste. 

You shouldn’t have to add water, but use your discretion.

To temper, heat some oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, soon after it splutters, add urd dal and curry leaves and wait till the dal browns. Add this to the chutney, serve!

Tomato Thokku (Tomato pickle)

Tomato Thokku

Pickles have had and continue to have an important part in my meal. There are almost no readymade pickles that I like and there are almost no home made pickle I dislike. I am usually not a curd rice person but if there is a nice pickle, I will go for it. Tomato thokku is one such pickle that makes me drool even as I post the recipe. It was often made by my mom and grandmother. It is quite versatile as one can have it with idli, dosa, bread, chapatti and ofcourse rice. It comes quite handy when you are short of time as you could just mix some pickle with rice to have a yummy tomato rice with some raita. You can adjust the oil and chilly powder according to your preference. Here is the recipe...

20 tomatoes, medium size

About ½ cup gingelly oil

2 teaspoons mustard seeds

½ teaspoon powdered roasted fenugreek seeds

2-3 teaspoons chilly powder

Salt to taste

1 teaspoon tamarind paste

Turmeric powder

Asafoetida

Heat some oil and add the mustard seeds. When they are about to crackle, add the asafoetida and fenugreek powder and turmeric powder.

Add ground tomatoes. If you have the time and energy, put the tomatoes in hot water for couple of minutes and peel its skin and then grind. If not, just remove the stalk end and grind. Be careful as there will be a lot of splashing and you may want to stay a step away when pouring the tomatoes

Boil until it just starts to reduce stirring occasionally and add the tamarind paste

Allow it to reduce well and add some oil and salt. Also add the chilly powder

Now stir often and make sure it all comes together and when it begins to leave the pan on the sides, it is done. You need to add some oil every now and then

Cool and store in clean and dry air tight container. 

Tips:

Try to store pickles in glass containers. Clean them well and dry them thoroughly

When stored with a bit of oil on top of them, they last a but longer.

Try not to use metal spoons and stick to plastic or wood.

Sweet Potato Chutney/Thogayal

Sweet Potato Chutney/Thogayal


Some days I try making recipes that I have no idea how it will turn out. While most recipes I try would give me a hunch that it will come out ok and I do not have to bin it, some do not give me that warm feeling. I still try a few of them because I think as a food blogger, it is my role to try and share what has been successful so you can enjoy it too. This time it was sweet potato chutney that I saw on a television program. I certainly remember sweet potato being one of the vegetables you can give a baby just as you start them on solids. The thought of grinding cooked sweet potato somehow gave me the fear of making baby food, not particularly appealing to adults, is it? I then decided to tweak the recipe to give it a better consistency and aroma. I added urd dal to it, similar to few other thogayals that mom would make. With great doubt, I mixed it with rice and tasted and then all I did was go for seconds. I loved the outcome! The generous amount of tamarind flakes imparted a great sour taste and when combined with the sweetness from the sweet potato, it was awesome. This dish has sweet, sour and heat in it. I did not grind the urd dal mixture very fine to impart some texture but that is upto you. If you do not take garlic, replace that with ginger. Remember that sweet potato actually counts as one of five a day vegetable unlike the normal potato. I have heard/read that when consumed with the skin, it helps prevent retinopathy in diabetics.

1 sweet potato
4 green chillies
A small ball of tamarind flakes
3-4 cloves garlic or replace with some ginger
1 tablespoon urd dal
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Heat little oil and fry the urd dal until golden, keep aside

In the same pan, add green chillies and garlic and fry until raw smell goes, keep aside

Add cut sweet potatoes, required salt and keep sprinkling water every now and then and cook the potatoes until done. Cool

Grind all together along with the tamarind flakes. To make grinding process easier, grind urd dal, chillies, garlic and tamarind first then add sweet potatoes. Try not to add too much water.

Serve with piping hot rice or idli, dosa or use as a spread in sandwich!

Mango Pachadi

Mango Pachadi


It is Tamil New Year today, so ‘Iniya Tamil Puthandu Vaazhthukkal’. My mother would normally make festive meal on this day and menu would include vada, thayir vada, thirukannamudhu (payasam/dessert), mango pachadi and regular rasam, mor kozhambu etc. Owing to my circumstances, I could not make an elaborate meal but I made it a point to make the pachadi. The main reason for that is the thought process behind the recipe. The pachadi includes a variety of flavours – sweet, sour, salt, heat, bitterness. The sourness comes from teh raw mango used, sweetness from the jaggery, heat from the green chillies, bitterness from the neem flower added. It is suppose to represent how life is full of mixed flavours, happy one time, disappointed another, sad at another time and so on. On the new years day, one makes and eats this dish to gulp down that truth about life. Another reason I wanted to post this today is that I have been wanting to get the blog ready with festival recipes ahead of the festival so readers can benefit but have just not got to it. Atleast this one has made it in the very day!

1 mango, cut into chunks
½ cup jaggery powdered
2 green chillies
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urd dal
1 teaspoon neem flower

Boil the mango in water until well done

Mash it roughly and add jaggery water (I prefer to dissolve the jaggery in little water and filter, you could add grated jaggery). Add green chillies and salt and bring to boil and allow to thicken

In the meantime heat little oil and add urd dal, mustard seeds and neem flower and allow the seeds to crackle and dal to brown.

Add this to the mango and boil for couple of minutes and it is ready!

Bombay Chutney

Bombay Chutney


While growing up, I remember my mother making a potato dish with besan in it to go with poori. That was her standard side dish for poori and it has been several years since I had it last. I was browsing a food blogger’s website and the name Bombay chutney rang a bell. I realised this is what the dish was called and could not wait to make it myself. It is a pretty simple and straightforward recipe so I got on with it the next day. On the menu was idli upma with leftover idli so I was not sure if the chutney would go well with it but it turned out great and have now decided this would be the standard combination on my weekly menu. The besan provides some protein thus making even the condiment quite healthy. Please be mindful of the fact that this can get quite thick when cooled so you are better off adding some generous quantity of water while preparing. If reheating from fridge, add hot water and heat. You could spread this on bread slice, add grated cheese and toast both sides to make yummy cheese toast.

3-4 tablespoons besan (chickpea flour)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
2-3 green chillies slit
1 tablespoon coriander leaves, chopped
½ teaspoon chilly powder
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon urd dal
Few curry leaves
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Asafoetida
Cooking oil

Heat some oil and add mustard seeds and urd dal

Once the seeds splutter, add the onions, green chillies and asafoetida and cook until soft

Add the tomatoes and little salt and cook until mushy

Add the chilly powder and turmeric powder and fry for a couple minutes

In the meantime make a paste by combining besan with some water (about 1 – 1 1/2 cups water)

Add this paste to the onion tomato mixture, add required salt, curry leaves and coriander leaves and cook on low flame

Keep stirring often and add more water if needed. Do keep in mind that it will thicken as it cools down.

Serve!

Plum Chutney

Plum chutney


Growing up, my only exposure to plum was through the plum cake that was available in local bakery. It is not one of the fruits that I had while growing up. Although not entirely true it may explain partly why I am not very fond of them here. I buy my fruits at the supermarket mainly because they are affordable but there is always a catch. The fruits are not always the most juicy and best. Plums especially could be very boring as they inherently lack huge flavours. However, my husband quite likes plums so I do buy them every now and then. Almost every time I buy them we waste about 2-3 of them cos one or two days after purchase, their appeal fades. I have always wanted to use them in recipes instead of trashing them so thought of making chutney and rasam (soup). I had not bought any recently but someone known to me was trying to give away some grown in his parent’s garden. That was my chance to give the chutney a go and it came out quite well. Depending on how tart they are, you may want to add a dash of tamarind paste. I had this with dosa and later noticed that it tasted great with rice too. You could have it as a dip or even mix some yogurt to make a flavourful plum raita.

4-5 plums
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2-3 heaped tablespoon roasted chickpea (pottu kadalai)
½ teaspoon sambar powder
3 dry red chillies
Few curry leaves
2-3 teaspoons dessicated/grated coconut (optional)
Turmeric powder
Asafoetida

Heat some oil and add mustard seeds. Once it splutters add the plums and dry red chillies and cook until plums turn mushy

Add sambar powder, salt, asafoetida, turmeric powder and cook for couple of minutes and turn the flame off

Add roasted chickpea, curry leaves and coconut if using and allow the mixture to cool

Grind to desired consistency and serve with dosa, idli or even with rice.

Sesame Chutney (Ellu chutney)

Sesame Chutney (Ellu chutney)


The health benefits of sesame are plenty and I always regret not having taken much of this wonderful seed while growing up. Better late than never so I have been using more of sesame in our diet. The tomato sesame chutney posted sometime back is a regular now in our home. After that, I have gained more confidence in using this wonderful seeds. It has numerous micro-nutrients that our essential for our body. It includes copper, which has anti-inflammatory properties and said to provide relief from rheumatoid arthritis; has magnesium which is said to support vascular and respiratory health. It is also said to be a good source of calcium which can help bone health. I am not a nutritionist but I always like to know more about what I put in my mouth. I saw a sesame chutney recipe on the television program but it pretty much used sesame seeds and coconut alone. Although I certainly add coconut in our diet and do not fear its fat as I believe any fat should be taken in moderation, from that standpoint I wanted to reduce quantity of coconut. I used the roasted chickpea so the recipe was similar to regular coconut chutney. It became an Indian version of hummus where a form of chickpea is used along with sesame seeds and instead of fat from oil, it uses fat from coconut. In effect, it was a nice a different chutney. Here is the recipe...

2-3 tablespoon coconut (dessicated or freshly grated)
2-3 tablespoons sesame seeds
Handful of roasted chickpea (pottu kadalai)
1 teaspoon tamarind paste
2 green chillies
Salt to taste
Curry leaves to garnish

Roast the sesame seeds until they start to pop

Grind along with roasted chickpea, coconut, tamarind, chillies and salt

Add required water and grind to however smooth you like. Add curry leaves and serve!

If you like you can heat some oil and crackle mustard seeds in it and add to chutney

Ginger Chutney (Andhra Style)

Ginger Chutney (Andhra Style)


When you have some great chutneys, it is hard to determine whether idli or dosa is the nain dish or the chutney. Well, usually we need chutneys for idli or dosa and usually upma and pongal as well. I like variety in chutneys and not just the usual coconut chutney. I saw a ginger chutney recipe on a television program and adapted it to our taste. One of the ingredients I forgot to add was dry red chillies but the chutney still came out great. Am sure the chillies will make it even better. I have almost stopped buying coconut and grating it freshly even for chutneys. I could not break and grate them myself so often they were just rotting in the shelf. I stopped buying them and now I use dessicated coconut for all coconut based dishes and I must say I do not really miss fresh grated one. I may not do the same for few dishes like kozhukattai etc. as the fresh juices from the coconut adds a special flavour. Anyway here is my chutney recipe...

3 tablespoons grated or dessicated coconut
1 tomato, chopped
½ - 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
2-3 tablespoons ginger,chopped
2-3 dry red chillies
Salt to taste
Asafoetida
Cooking oil

Heat a kadai and little oil and fry the dry red chillies, coconut, tomato and asafoetida and cook until the tomato wilts and add ginger and tamarind paste at this stage

Cool and grind with required salt and serve

You could use some mustard seeds for tempering

Eggplant Chutney

Eggplant chutney

Eggplant/aubergine/brinjal all the same and all names refer to one of my favourite vegetables. Adapting to Spanish aubergine instead of the baby eggplants and variety of other brinjals I was used to was a learning experience in my culinary adventure. Once I got a hang of ways to cook this variety, I am now more comfortable experimenting it. I saw eggplant chutney recipe by Sanjay Thumma and I have adapted to my preference. Key difference is that I have charred the aubergine rather than frying it. It not only imparts an awesome flavour but also reduces amount of oil. The traditional eggplant chutney (thogayal) recipe in my family is different from this and will post that later. This dish tastes great with rice but can also be used as a dip or spread. Here is my version...

1 big eggplant
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1-2 inch piece of ginger
3 green chillies
2-3 tablespoons dhariya (roasted chickpea aka ‘odaicha kadalai’)
½ teaspoon tamarind paste
¼ teaspoon fenugreek powder (optional)
Asafoetida
Turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds and curry leaves for tempering

Wash the aubergine and char on direct flame until it is well done. Remove the skin and chop roughly

Heat a teaspoon oil, crackle mustard seeds and asafoetida, turmeric powder, add ginger, curry leaves, chillies, dhariya, fenugreek powder and fry for 3-5 minutes

Add tamarind and some water and cook for about 5 minutes then add the chopped aubergine and salt and fry for couple of minutes

Allow it to cool and grind to desired consistency, add required water while grinding. Add a teaspoon oil in a skillet and add mustard seed. Once it crackles add curry leaves and add the ground paste. Add little water and allow to boil briefly.

Serve with piping hot rice and some oil or enjoy as a dip or spread

Tomato - Sesame Seed Chutney

Tomato - Sesame Seed Chutney

For a long time my association with Sesame had to do with the phrase from Arabian Nights – Open Sesame (which by the way reflects the fact that sesame bursts open upon maturity). Having said that, I now understand that the ‘milagai’ powder that mom made for idlis and dosas had a lot of sesame seeds in it. It is a shame that it took me a long time to realise that the 'nallennai' aka gingelly oil is actually sesame seed oil. But for that, I have barely included sesame in my diet. Honestly, I was not really able to appreciate its distinct flavour and taste. I had used it in a dish and results were quite good. As always, I do have a big packet of black sesame seeds that has been lying in my shelf for a long time now. I was keen to use them soon because the oils in the seed could go rancid if stored for long. I was trying a variety of dosas, which is quite a normal thing in my kitchen, and wanted a new chutney for it. I was also thinking of trying some Andhra recipe and that is how I ended up with tomato sesame seeds chutney. I must say that it was a superhit. My husband, who is usually very wary of my experiments, actually said he liked it and would like it made more often. I quite liked it as well and am drooling now even thinking of it. The best part is it goes well with idlis, dosas, rice, rotis and even bread. I know some people love ‘milagai’ powder (gun powder) but the amount of oil mixed with it is not good for cholesterol. This chutney has the potential to replace the ‘milagai’ powder and is a must try. Here is how I made it…


2 tablespoons sesame seeds
3 big tomatoes, chopped
5 dry red chillies (adjust according to taste)
½ teaspoon tamarind paste
1 teaspoon channa dal (kadalai paruppu)
1 teaspoon sambar powder (optional)
Asafoetida and turmeric powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon urd dal
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

In a skillet, roast the sesame seeds till they start popping. Keep aside and roast the chillies until they turn crisp, keep aside. Roast the channa dal till it turns golden brown.

In a saucepan, cook the tomatoes until it becomes pulpy. Add the tamarind paste, asafoetida, turmeric powder and sambar powder and cook for further couple of minutes.

Grind the sesame seeds, channa dal and chillies first and then add the tomato pulp and grind. Season with required salt.

In the skillet, add less than a teaspoon oil and add mustard seeds and urd dal. Once the mustard seeds splutters and dal turns brown, add to ground chutney and serve.