Kasoori Methi Chutney

Ingredients:

Kasoori methi: 1 cup

Onion (chopped): 1

Tomato (chopped): 1

Green chilli (chopped): 1

Curry leaves: a few

Tamarind paste: 1/2 tsp.

Mustard seeds: 1 tsp.

Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp.

Salt to taste

Cooking oil: 2 tsp.

Urad dal: 1 tsp.

Chana dal: 1 tsp.

Coriander seeds: 1 tsp.

Cinnamon: 1 inch

Cloves: 2

Dried red chillis: 2

1. Dry roast urad dal, chana dal, coriander seeds, cinnamon, cloves and red chillis on emedium flame. Let cool and grind them to a coarse powder. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the onions, fry until they are transparent. Add curry leaves and green chillis and cook for another minute.
3. Add tomato and salt and mix well. Let cook until the tomatoes become soft and mushy. 
4. Add kasoori methi and mix well. Add the roasted spice powder and tamarind paste and mix well. Let cook for another minute and turn off the heat. Cool and serve as chutney with any dish. This chutney can be stored for up to a week in an airtight container in fridge.

Green Chilli Chutney

Ingredients:

Green chilli (chopped): 4

Chana dal: 1 tsp.

Ginger (chopped): 1 inch

Curry leaves: a few

Dessicated coconut: 3 tsp.

Coriander leaves: a few

Sugar: 1 tsp.

Lemon juice: 1 tsp.

Mint powder: 1 tsp.

Cooking oil: 2 tsp.

Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in a pan and add chana dal, roast on medium flame until it is golden.
2. Add curry leaves and chopped green chilli. Let cook for about 2 minutes.
3. Add coconut and ginger and cook for another minute. Remove from the heat and let cool.
4. Add this mix to a mixer with lemon juice, sugar and salt. Add little water if required and grind to a fine paste. 
5. Add coriander leaves and grind again. Take out in a bowl, mix in the mint powder (optional) and mix well. Serve as chutney/dip. This can be refrigerated for 2-3 days. 

Coconut Chutney: Restaurant style

I have been making coconut chutney a lot, to accompany all my South Indian dishes. This is my dairy-free recipe of making coconut chutney. Coconut Chutney without yoghurt. Recently when I visited some south Indian friends, they gave me their recipe which I tried out, and never went back to the way I was doing before.. Okay, no.. that's also what I like a lot and I have only made with this recipe twice, it sure did gave a wonderful and different taste.

Ingredients:

Roasted Bengal gram: 6 tsp.
Coconut broken in pieces: 1 cup
Yoghurt: 1/4 cup
Green chilli (chopped): 1
Coriander leaves: 1/2 bunch
Tamarind paste: 1 tsp.
Salt to taste
Cooking oil: 2 tsp.
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp.
Asafoetida: 1 pinch
Curry leaves: a few
Dried red chilli: 1

1. Add the coconut, yoghurt, Bengal gram, Green chilli, coriander leaves, salt and tamarind to the mixer. Add little water if required and grind it to a very smooth paste. Take out in a bowl.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asafoetida, curry leaves and red chilli. Cook for 2 minutes and turn off the heat.
3. Pour this mixture over the chutney and serve !!

Schezwan Sauce: Hot and Spicy

Ingredients:

Dried Red Chillies: 6
Garlic (chopped): 4 cloves
Ginger (grated): 1 inch
Spring onions (chopped): 3
Sugar: 2 tsp.
Soy Sauce: 1 tsp.
Vinegar: 1/2 tsp.
Tomato Ketchup: 1 tsp.
White peppercorns: 1/4 tsp.
Cooking oil: 2 tsp.
Salt to taste

1. Soak the red chillies in hot water for about 15 minutes. Drain water and grind to a fine paste. Keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger and garlic. Cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the onions and sauté well for another 2 minutes.
3.  Add the red chilli paste and let cook well until the water evaporates and the chillis are cooked.
4. Add sugar, vinegar, soy sauce. Mix well. Grind the white peppercorns and add to the pan. Mix everything well and let cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Add salt and tomato ketchup. Mix, let cook for a minute and turn off the flame. Let cool and enjoy with any Chinese foods. This can also be used as a dip otherwise and can be stored in refrigerator in an air-tight box.

Curry leaves Chutney

I tried to make this curry leaves chutney when I was out of mint and coriander to make Coriander Chutney, to go with Khatta Dhokla, and to my surprise, it turned out to be quite wonderful, even though I was doubtful about how it would taste. Now I plan to make this chutney with idlis and Khaman Dhokla as well. Here are all the recipes:
5-Minute Rawa Idli Recipe
3-Minute Khaman Dhokla Recipe
3-Minute Rawa Dhokla Recipe
Spicy Idli Recipe

 Although this recipe uses fresh curry leaves, we rarely have access to them outside India. So I used the dried curry leaves for this chutney, hence the dark colour, and not even a good picture. It will have a green shade if fresh curry leaves are used.

Ingredients:

Curry leaves: 1/2 cup
Urad Dal: 2 tsp.
Asafoetida: a pinch
Grated coconut: 2 tsp.
Green chilli (chopped): 1
Tamarind paste: 1/2 tsp.
Salt to taste
Cooking oil: 2 tsp.
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp.

1. If using fresh curry leaves, dry roast them until crispy. I use dried, so I did not roast them, they are already dried and roasted.
2. Heat 1 tsp. oil and add urad dal, fry until it becomes golden. Add asafoetida, coconut and green chilli. Fry for about 30 seconds. 
3. Cool and add to a mixer. Add salt and tamarind and grind together with the roasted curry leaves to form a smooth paste. Take out in a bowl.
4. Heat 1 tsp. oil and crackle the mustard seeds. Pour over the chutney, mix and serve. 

Onion Tomato Chutney

Plum Tomatoes 6 numbers Spring onions 3 numbers Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon Curry leaves A few Salt to taste Red chilli powder to taste Dried red chilli 1 number Mint leaves A few Cooking oil 1 teaspoon Mango powder 2 pinchs



Heat oil and add mustard seeds and curry leaves. When they temper, add the red chilli and onions cut in fine rounds. Let them fry for 3-4 minutes and drain the oil and transfer to a bowl. Keep aside. In the same pan, add the chopped tomatoes. Add salt, red chilli powder and mango powder. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes until the tomatoes are soft. Take out in a bowl and add the fried onions. Garnish with mint leaves and serve.

Coconut Chutney..

The day I discovered this amazing chutney was the day my love for south Indian dishes increased manifold.

Shredded coconut 1 Cup Chana dal 4 Tablespoons Urad dal (white) 2 Tablespoons Green chilli (chopped) 1 Ginger (chopped) Slice 1 Dry red chillies 2 Curry leaves 10 Coriander leaves 1 Sprig Salt To Taste Tamarind To Taste Mustard seeds 1/2 Teaspoon Cooking oil 2 Tablespoons Asafoetida 1 Pinch Red chilli powder 1/4 Teaspoon



Dry roast the chana dal on medium heat until it changes color and gives out a wonderful aroma. Transfer it to a bowl with little water and keep aside. Next, dry roast the coconuts till they start becoming brown in color and give out an amazing aroma. Keep them aside to cool. Then dry roast ginger and green chilli until they start to caramelize. Keep them aside. Then add coriander leaves with the stems to the dry pan and fry till it wilts. Remove from heat. Add coconut, ginger and green chilli, tamarind and salt to the mixer. Drain the water from chana dal and add dal to the mixer. Add some water and grind it to make a blend. Take out the mixture in a big bowl. Keep aside. Heat the shallow pan on medium heat and add oil. Let it heat and then add mustard seeds. Let them splutter. Add curry leaves and let it cook for about a minute. Next, add asafoetida and dry red chillis. Fry them for about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and add red chilli powder. Mix well and immediately pour this tempering over the coconut mix. Serve with hot idlis, dosa, upma, uttpam etc. It can be refrigerated for up to 2-3 days.

Mint- Coriander Chutney (and freezing tips)

It's green, it's beautiful, it's yummy, it's no cook and easy to prepare and it pairs up with as many snacks as you can think of !!
This delicious mint-coriander chutney makes a perfect dip for so many snacks such as Bread pakoda, Dhokla and Rawa dhokla, Pyaaz ki bhajiya, Potato Cutlets, Samosa, Kachori and what not !! It has always been a favorite in my house and a spoonful can also be eaten as a side with a usual Indian platter. I remember as a kid eating big spoonfuls of just the chutney, which used to fire up my taste buds, but tasted awesomely good.

This post is to prepare sinfully delicious green chutney (that's how it has been prepared by my grandmother and my mom and I have always loved this) and how to freeze the chutney for future use (as in my case where I don't have access to fresh mint and coriander everyday unlike in India).

Ingredients:

Mint leaves: 2 cups
Coriander leaves: 1.5 cups
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder to taste
Lemon juice of one lemon
Onion (chopped): 1
Green chilli (chopped): 1 (or more if required)

1. Remove the mint leaves from the stems and wash thoroughly. Chop and add to the grinder.
2. Wash the coriander leaves thoroughly with tender stems and chop and add to the grinder as well. 
    
   
3. Add the chopped onion and green chilli to the mixer. Add the salt, red chilli powder and lemon juice and add little water. Grind to a fine consistency and remove in a bowl. 
   
4. This chutney stays good in the refrigerator for about 8-10 days and can even be frozen for later use. Pour the chutney into ice trays and freeze for a day. 
    
   
5. When they are frozen, take out the cubes and store in ziplock freezer bags and get chutney with your snacks all year round. 

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Strawberry Jam

It's summers and the season of strawberries !! Ever since the summer started, we have been eating fresh strawberries, having strawberry shake, smoothies, in fruit salads; everything ! So when my husband suggested we must go in for something different with strawberries, I came up with the idea of making jam and canning it. I'm not really a jam person and I don't like jams, but my husband does. So we got another batch of strawberries and I converted them to Jam !! It looked super delicious !!

These are the hulled strawberries, ready to be made into jam.

And voila! This is my strawberry jam !!!

Strawberries

2 cups

Sugar

6 tablespoons

Lemon Juice

4 tablespoons

Wash the strawberries thoroughly and cut off the upper green part. Now, mash the strawberries completely. In a heavy bottomed pan, add the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice on low heat till the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat to medium and bring this mixture to a rolling boil. Stir regularly otherwise it will stick to the pan and burn. Keep stirring for full 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and can it in a sterilized jar. Cap it and immerse in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove from the water and refrigerate. The jam would be ready to eat after it cools down.