Mint & Coriander Thogayal / Pudina Kothamalli Thogayal

Everyone in my family is a fan of mint. I am thankful for that, because I know some that hate the smell and flavor of mint! I can't even imagine how people could hate mint! Anyway, this is a very common side-dish that's prepared at home. My mom loves green chutneys and thogayals, and everything green, and she makes them well too (my husband has his answer for why I'm obsessed with all things green ;)). And pudina (mint) thogayal, cilantro thogayal, and curry-leaf thogayal are her specialties.

Now that summer is in full swing, there is no shortage of herbs, fruits, and vegetables, especially mint. They take over your yard in no time and are so hard to control or get rid of (if you really wanted to). So with fresh mint galore, this is a wonderful way to make a flavorful, fragrant condiment that perfumes the entire house as it cooks. Every year, I wait for summer to make rich mint chutneys and thogayals. So, here it is!

Rhubarb & Strawberry Chutney

I don't know why I never thought of making a slightly sweet and savory chutney with rhubarb! Being tart, it takes the place of tamarind or cider vinegar or lemon juice in fruity chutneys. All I had to do was add some other sweet fruits, some Indian spices, and cook everything down! 

Anyway, it had to be this year, this month when this had to materialize. Also, thanks to Martha Stewart's recipe for providing me with a base and an idea to expand on. 

I personally really like this recipe. It is tart and sweet with a dominating flavor of curry powder that brings in a familiar note to Indian palates.

Coconut Chutney

Coconut chutney is the definition of South-Indian spicy chutneys served alongside steaming, fluffy idlis and crisp dosas. It is so simple to whip up - there is no roasting or frying or anything much involved except throwing together all ingredients in a blender. The only additional step required is to temper some seasonings in oil, and coconut chutney is ready literally within 10 minutes or less!

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

1. 1 cup shredded/grated coconut, thawed, if frozen
2. 3 green chillies
3. 1/4 cup pottu kadalai / dalia / roasted bengal gram
4. 1 inch block of ginger
5. 3/4 cup water or as needed
6. 1/2 teaspoon salt or as needed
7. 1/2 tablespoon oil
8. 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
9. 1/8 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
10. 1 teaspoon split urad dal / ulutham paruppu
11. a few curry leaves

Preparation:

1. Grind together - coconut, green chillies, pottu kadalai, ginger, and salt with water - to desired consistency. 
2. Temper some mustard seeds, split urad dal, hing, and curry leaves in oil until the dal turns golden. Add it to the chutney and mix well. 

Serve as a side dish with idli, dosa or roti. 

Peanut Chutney

Savory, spicy peanut butter in Indian chutney form. Does it need any more description? I had often heard of peanut chutney, but it was only recently that I tried to make it. It was incredibly easy to make on a busy evening, and being a fan of peanuts, the husband had no complaints. 

I'm not sure if this is how authentic peanut chutney is made. This is just a version that I tried, and it tastes pretty good.

Ingredients (serves 4):

1. 3/4 cup unsalted skinned peanuts (roasted is good)
2. 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
3. 1 tablespoon split urad dhal / split de-husked black gram
4. 1/4 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
5. 3 strips of curry leaves / karuvepillai
6. 2 pods of garlic, roughly chopped
7. 3/4 teaspoon salt or as needed
8. 2-3 dry red chillies

Preparation:

1. Dry roast the peanuts (if un-roasted) for 5-7 minutes on medium heat until the peanuts are aromatic. Remove and keep aside. 
2. In the same pan, heat oil. When oil is hot, add urad dhal, hing, red chillies, and curry leaves (be careful, the curry leaves will crackle in oil) and fry for a few seconds. Then, add the garlic and fry for about 2 minutes until the garlic is not raw.  Remove from heat. 
3. When cool, grind the peanuts along with salt and the fried mixture with about 1/2-3/4 cup of water or as needed to form a semi-smooth paste. I don't over-grind the peanuts to peanut butter. I like a little texture and crunch in the chutney. 

Serve with idlis and dosas, or have as a spicy spread with toast.

Cabbage Chutney

Necessity is always the mother of invention. I had a little bit of cabbage slowly getting to the point of going bad and I wanted to put it to some use. We were having idlis that particular night and I thought - why not make a chutney with it along with some familiar flavors of tomato and onion? So, that's what I did. And the chutney came out pretty well. It tasted slightly sweet, with hints of cabbage and ginger flavor. I recommend the chutney if you like cabbage.

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 head of a medium-large cabbage, chopped or shredded (about 3 cups)
2. 1 onion, chopped
3. 2 tomatoes, chopped
4. 1 teaspoon minced ginger
5. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
6. 2 tablespoons split urad dhal / dehusked split black gram 
7. 2-3 dry red chillies
8. 2 tablespoons olive oil / vegetable oil
9. 1/4 teaspoon hing / asafoetida
10. 1.5 teaspoons salt, or as needed

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan. When hot, add urad dhal, turmeric, red chillies and hing. Saute on medium heat until urad dhal begins to change color slightly.
2. Add ginger and onions and saute until translucent. 
3. Add tomatoes and cook along with salt until they become soft and mushy.
4. Finally add cabbage and cook on low-medium heat until cabbage is fully cooked.
5. When cooked, remove from heat and cool. When cool, grind to a thick paste by sprinkling no more than 1/4 cup of water or as needed depending on the blender.

Serve chutney with dosas, idlis or rotis. You can even mix this with rice with a little bit of sesame oil or ghee. 

Cilantro & Tomato Thuvayal / Chutney

Thuvaiyal is a South-Indian chutney/dip/sauce. Thuvaiyals are usually slightly tart and spicy. Cilantro makes a really good thuvaiyal/chutney. It can be had as a dip, a side-dish, or even as a spread on breads/sandwiches. 

Cilantro and tomato make a really good combination. So this version has both elements. If you so desire, you can eliminate the tomatoes, add more cilantro/coriander leaves, a little more tamarind (for the tartness) and follow the same procedure below.

This is my in-law's recipe for really good thuvayal using cilantro and tomatoes.

Ingredients:

1. 3 medium sized tomatoes, cut into small pieces
2. 1 standard bunch of cilantro / coriander leaves, roughly chopped (without the stems)
3. 2 teaspoons split urad dhal / ulutham paruppu
4. 4 dry red chillies
5. 2-3 inch strip tamarind (depending on how tart the tomatoes are)
6. 1/4 inch hing
7. 1 teaspoon salt (as needed)
8. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil / olive oil

Preparation: 

1. Heat oil in a small skillet. When hot, in medium heat, fry the split urad dhal, red chillies and hing until the dhal begins to change color. 
2. Add the cut tomatoes and fry until they are cooked and their skin begins to wilt.
3. Now add the coriander leaves and fry until the leaves wilt. 
4. Grind the fried coriander-tomato spices with salt and tamarind to a desired consistency. It's not necessary to add water because of the tomatoes. If needed, add a couple of tablespoons of water. 

Serve as a side-dish/dip. 

Mango Chutney

The Mango is the sweetheart of all tropical fruits. It’s the most sought after, universally preferred fruit that is good when it is raw or ripe - or even in-between! I am perhaps the rare exception - I am not a fan of mangoes. I like them when they are raw (who doesn’t), but I don’t like their pungent ripe flavor. So, the sub-par mangoes we get here are ideal to experiment in cooking because they have no strong sweet or tart flavors like the rich Indian ones. These mangoes exude just a little bit of mango-flavor and take on the flavors that are added.

For a recent cook-out that consisted of an international mix of people, I thought I would bring something totally tropical, widely familiar and ever exotic - the mango chutney. Having never prepared mango chutney before, I drew inspiration from the mango pachadi and came up with this. I’m happy to have come up with this recipe - for it’s a keeper. It blends the line between sweet and savory and can be had as a side-dish with anything. Anand prefers to eat it as is.

Ingredients (for 6 servings)

1. 2 Mangoes - halfway ripe (a little sour, a little sweet)
2. 3 green chillies (for a milder spice)
3. 1.5 teaspoons minced ginger
4. 1.5 cups water
5. 2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
6. 2 teaspoons cumin powder / jeera powder
7. 2 teaspoons coriander powder
8. 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
9. pinch of hing / asafoetida
10. pinch of saffron
11. 1 teaspoon salt
12. 2 tablespoons brown sugar or jaggery (increase or decrease this amount based on how sweet the mangoes are. My mangoes were hardly sweet, nor were they tart enough)
13. ¼ cup cilantro / coriander leaves
14. 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
15. some lemon juice (depends on how tart the mangoes are)

Preparation:

1. Peel the mangoes and cut into small pieces
2. In a medium-sized saucepan, heat some vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, splutter the mustard seeds. Add the minced ginger and green chillies along with a pinch of hing. Saute for a few seconds.
3. Add the mangoes and saute them on medium heat for 5 minutes.
4. Add enough water to cover the mangoes (about 1.5 cups). Add the spices to this - salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, brown sugar/jaggery, and a pinch of saffron. Close the lid, reduce the heat a little bit and let the mangoes cook completely. Periodically, check on them and give a stir so that they don’t stick to the pan.
5. Remove from heat when the mangoes are completely cooked and soft and there’s hardly any water. Let it cool.
6. When cooled, add roughly chopped coriander leaves and pulse the chutney in a mixer a couple of times. The consistency of the chutney is up to you. You can puree it to form a smooth paste like chutney, or give it a little bit of texture and bite. Or, you don’t have to pulse or puree. Just serve as is.
7. Taste the chutney - it should be sweet, spicy, and slightly tangy. If there’s no tang (because the mangoes are too sweet or just not tart enough), squeeze the juice of half a lemon and mix well.

The chutney goes well as a savory dip, jam, and spread. It can even be had as a side-dish with rice.

Onion Chutney

Onions are popular in Indian cooking. Their strong flavor serves as the foundation for most gravies, curries and chutneys. Here is a chutney that tries to bring out the milder flavors of the onion by tempering its potent taste to the right degrees.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

1. 2 medium-sized onions - diced
2. 1 tablespoon of vegetable / olive oil
3. 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
4. 1 tablespoon split urad-dhal / ullutham paruppu
5. 1 teaspoon bengal gram dhal / kadala paruppu
6. ½ teaspoon thoor dhal / thuvaram paruppu (normally not added in chutneys, but I like to)
7. ¼ teaspoon hing / asafoetida
8. a 2 inch strip of tamarind
9. 1 teaspoon salt or as needed
10. 2-3 dry red chillies

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, splutter mustard seeds. Add to it - split urad-dhal, bengal gram dhal, thoor dhal, hing, and red chillies. Fry for 30 seconds or so.
2. Add the chopped onions and saute/fry for about 15 minutes on medium heat until the onions start to brown at the edges and are translucent. If you would like, you can fry the onions on low heat for a few more minutes so that the edges caramelize and give out a sweet flavor. Turn off the heat.
3. At this point, add the tamarind (roughly torn into smaller bits) and salt, and saute in the residual heat for a couple of minutes. Let the mixture cool.
4. When cool, grind to a paste with about 2 tablespoons or ¼ cup of water.

This is a tangy and spicy chutney to go along idli, dosai, adai etc. It can also be served as a dip for chips - just to be different.

I think some prefer to slightly fry the resulting paste with a little bit of oil to add another layer of flavors and to tone down the pungency of the onions a bit more. Some also reserve the garnish (comprising of mustard seeds and the dhals) to be served on top of the ground chutney in order to provide a crunchy texture to the homogeneous paste. Alternatively, I coarsely grind the chutney so that there is a bit of bite and crunch from the dhals. There are always adaptions to any simple dish, so go with what works for you.

Tomato-Onion Chutney

As a kid, this was my ultimate, darling chutney. This is part of my dear nostalgic package of comfort food and reassuring moments. And my mom makes the best tomato-onion chutney. She makes it with minimal seasonings and spice, reinforcing the simple and basic tastes of tomatoes and onions.

So here is the recipe. (Warning: there will be a lot of tomato-based dishes to follow for a while since the garden is alive with them!)

Ingredients:

1. Five to Six ripe tomatoes, chopped
2. 2 medium sized onions or 1 big onion, chopped (red onions are best)
3. 1 teaspoon of black mustard seeds (my mom doesn’t add this)
4. 1 teaspoon of urad dhal
5. 1 teaspoon of channa dhal
6. 1 teaspoon of Thoor dhal
7. ½ teaspoon of Hing
8. 1 teaspoon of turmeric
9. 2-3 dried red chillies (or more)
10. 1 teaspoon of salt (or a little more)
11. 1 tablespoon of vegetable/olive oil

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter
2. Once they do, add channa dhal, urad dhal, thoor dhal, Hing, red chillies, and turmerics and saute a bit on medium heat until they begin to slightly brown.
3. Add the onions and saute till they become translucent and tender.
4. Add the tomatoes and saute till they become soft and wilt a bit. Switch off the heat. Let this cool.
5. Once cooled, add everything to a blender along with some salt and grind away. I sometimes prefer the chutney to be a bit coarsely ground so that the dhals/pulses add some texture. This is again different from how my mom blends - and I do like those finely pureed versions the best, for it makes me feel all baby-ish and warm and fuzzy.
6. Check for seasonings and serve alongside idlis, dosais, adais, etc. They even make awesome dips for tortilla chips!

Variations

This chutney turns out uniquely tasty if a bunch of coriander leaves are added while blending. One of my aunts and my in-laws follow this variation, and as I said, there is no question that it come out good! But if you like to concentrate on the flavors of onions and tomatoes, this recipe should do it just fine.