Coconut thogayal, known as Thengai thogayal is an extremely common South-Indian side-dish. Since coconuts are available aplenty in South-India, they are featured extensively in most of our cooking. This is super simple to prepare and so delicious when mixed with rice. This thogayal is what people resort to when there aren't enough vegetables or when they lack lack the time to make an elaborate meal. Sounds like a thursday night dinner option?
Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1.5 cups grated coconut (if using frozen shredded coconut, thaw for a coupe of minutes in the microwave)
- 3 dry red chillies
- 2 inch piece of tamarind, torn into pieces
- 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida / hing
- 2 tablespoons split de-husked urad dhal /split black gram
- 1 teaspoon salt or as needed
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add urad dhal, red chillies and hing and fry on medium heat until dhal begins to change color slightly.
- Add coconut and fry just for a minute to soften the coconut and make it begin to release some oil. Remove from heat. Allow to cool and then grind with salt and tamarind with about 1/3 cup of water or as needed until the coconut is ground with the tamarind, dhal and chillies. The thogayal need not be completely smooth - a little crunch adds to the texture. Also, make sure to not add too much water to convert the thogayal to chutney. Thogayal will be thicker and denser than chutney.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI am a beginner and i found your blog very useful. Thankyou for putting it all down in simple steps. I ended up making thenga thogayal with too much tamarind! Any suggestions on how to rectify it? I tried adding more thengai, sugar and salt but no luck. Help! :(
Thankyou
Amritha
Hi Amritha, sorry about the late reply. Glad you find this space useful! Tamarind is actually tricky because the tartness depends on the variety/ how old or new it is etc., so don't worry. A simple fix is what you've already tried. Just try adding more coconut, fried urad dal and salt... Keep adding them in increments until it reaches a flavorful balance of your choice.
DeleteHope this helps. Good luck!
Thank you! I ended up mixing it with sambar and turned it into arachi-vitta sambar :P. I find all your recipes easy to follow and as a new bride not protected by the arsenal of my own set of "Samaithu paar" books i am so excited to have come across your blog. Keep the inspired-cooking coming !!
DeleteSorry for the really late reply.
DeleteMixing with sambar is a great idea! Good thinking :)
Thank you! It feels really good to hear that you've been trying out recipes from here. I am sure this is an exciting time for you! Soon you would need no arsenals of any kind ;)