curry leaves

Tomato and Coconut Chutney

April 27, 2016 by manjirichitnis 18 Comments

Tomato and Coconut Chutney recipe, a perfect little treat to scoop up with your soft idlis and crispy dosas

A freshly made coconut chutney served with steaming hot idlis or a crisp dosa hot off the pan is a thing of delight.

There are many varieties of this coconut chutney, but I prefer the one with tomatoes. It just adds that much more depth of flavour and dimension.

This easy recipe becomes even more fun to create when using a powerful blender like my new Optimum G.21 Platinum blender. Why? Because the speed and convenience of having a pre-set function to grind means the job is done at the press of a button.

Besides the consistency and texture of the chutney is perfect.

If you are using frozen grated coconut as I do, it will look like this

Tomato and Coconut Chutney

Manjiri Chitnis

Fresh and delicious this tomato and grated coconut chutney adds a pop of colour and vibrancy to your dishes

5 from 4 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time 2 mins

Cook Time 2 mins

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Indian

Servings 6 servings

Equipment

Blender/Mixer-Grinder

Ingredients

For grinding the chutney

55 gm Grated coconut – 1/4 cup
1/2 large Tomato or 1 small
3 Kashmiri red chillies dried
½ Green Chilli
1 tsp Chana dal or yellow Bengal gram split and without skin
Ginger – a small knob about the size of your thumbnail
2 Small cloves Garlic – without skin
Salt as per taste
Water – add according to consistency

For the tadka or tempering

1 tbsp Oil
5 Curry Leaves
1 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Urad dal (split black lentil without skin)

Instructions

Heat a pan on a medium flame and pan roast the chana dal till it turns a dark brown colour, do not allow it to burn, gently keep moving it on the pan with a wooden spatula. Set aside to cool
Halve the tomato and add into the blender
Add the freshly grated coconut, I buy a frozen packet from my local Indian store, have a look at the photograph in my post
Remove the skin of the ginger – this is best done using the back of a spoon if the ginger is fresh – it will come off easily, of not use a knife
Now add the garlic cloves, Kashmiri red chillies, and salt. You can increase or decrease the number of Red Chillies depending on how hot you want the chutney to be
Add the roasted chana dal which should have cooled down by now
Add about one and a half tbsp water and grind to a thick coarse paste-like consistency.
The water level depends on how you would like the consistency to be. I generally add a little more water after the first grind and give it one more pulse in my Froothie to get a better pouring consistency
Decant the chutney into a bowl
Heat the oil in a kadhai or saucepan and add the mustard seeds in the hot oil
Once the seeds begin to pop add the urad dal and let it brown, then throw in the fresh curry leaves
Pour this hot tadka mixture onto the chutney and serve fresh with steaming hot idlis or dosas

Keyword Chutney

A peek inside the blender ..

If you are not using the Froothie power blender, then chop the chillies roughly into small pieces, repeat with the ginger and garlic too.

This is because the sharp blades of the Optimum G2.1 Platinum blender will be able to easily grind the whole ingredients, a task that a regular mixie will struggle with.

I add the dried red Kashmiri chilli for its colour as well as flavour. In many of my curries I just these chillies whole to add a hint of flavour. But remember once made into a paste these chillies release their hidden potency – it’s a very different beast then and the heat can be really intense. So if you don’t deal with heaty – spicy chillies well then use only a half of a Kashmiri chilli in this chutney. It will still add a dash of colour and flavour without scathing your palate

And the green chilli gives it necessary flavour which I find very distinctly pungent and traceable when I eat this chutney, if it was missing I would know instantly and would miss it.

The fresh taste of the chutney and the crunch of the curry leaves is simply irresistible, the tomatoes add just the right amount of tang to this beautiful chutney. Typical to the South of India this recipe is something that most families make with variations of their own. Some even prefer to add some onion or roast the coconut before adding to the blender. whichever recipe you use this chutney will never go out of fashion.

Need an easy recipe for steam idlis, check out my recipe here

*I am an ambassador for Froothie and was sent a Froothie Optimum G2.1 Platinum blender for review. This post has affiliate links.

Save money on these 5 essential ingredients + #CreditCrunchMunch for March 2016

March 1, 2016 by manjirichitnis 8 Comments

I cannot believe we are already into March 2016 – time truly does fly past at lightening speed. Of all the firm resolutions and changes for 2016 I am glad I have managed to stay true to my money saving ideas if not the ‘I shall blog 3 times a week’ or ‘ I will exercise at least 3 days every week’ type of resolutions.

One of the many things I have changed about how we manage our monthly budget on a single income is by doing batch cooking and also being mindful of where I buy my groceries from. Apart from the many sensible tips one can find for WHEN and WHERE to shop and how to make good with various supermarket offers, I also have some rules for my top 5 fresh ingredients for Indian cooking. Here they are:

Always buy fresh coriander bunches and curry leaves from your local Indian shop or Pakistani/Bangladeshi butcher shop – they sell larger bunches and you can buy two big fresh bunches for £1
Ginger – I make fresh ginger tea very often – the famous Indian masala tea or as we call it in Marathi – ‘chaha’ – again I buy a huge chunk of fresh ginger for much less from my Indian grocery and vegetable shop
Garlic – most of my Indian curry and vegetable recipes use a lot of ginger, garlic and red onion and this is another item I bulk buy from my local LIDL – they sell cute mini baskets with at least 5-6 big bulbs of garlic – deal!
Red onions – most Indian shops or Pakistani/Bangladeshi butcher shops stock sacks of red onion – 5 or 10 kilos at rates much lower than your local supermarket – I generally stock up and though that means having to sort these out and process them quickly, it’s totally worth it. I chop the best ones and store them in my fridge in an air-tight container. The not so fresh ones quickly become puree’ for curries and stews and go into my freezer.
Dried lentil packets, Rice – especially Basmati , Chapati Atta – flour to make rotis and chapatis – I hunt for deals on various supermarket websites and at my local stores and only buy the ones that give the best deal. I prefer to go in the afternoon just after noon so I can concentrate on checking out the offers minus having the store flooded with school going kids.

I truly envy those skilled enough to grow their own herbs and that is one of my top TO-DO’s this year – a container garden! More on this sometime later though and I hope these tips prove useful to all you thrifty shoppers out there. Now, I am guest hosting #CreditCrunchMunch for March 2016

For those of you have not heard about #CreditCrunchMunch (and for the regulars – a re-cap) , here are some cool ideas that you can consider when linking up:

Dishes using cheaper ingredients – cheap cuts of meat or vegetarian
Meals using leftovers
Meals using up the ends of packets
Substitutions of cheaper ingredients
Packed lunches
Meals that use less energy to cook
Pressure cooking
Slow cooking
Faster cooking – less oven time for example
Batch cooking for the freezer
Sustainable foods
Food you have grown yourself
Meals from reduced food in the supermarket

How to take part in CREDIT CRUNCH MUNCH:

Simply blog about any money saving idea or recipe that is vaguely food related. We do a full round up so I will be mentioning all the recipes that are submitted.

There are a few very simple rules:

Please link to this post, and the Credit Crunch Munch pages on Fab Food 4 All Fuss Free Flavours
Please use the Credit Crunch Munch Badge
Tweet using #CreditCrunchMunch and tag me @manjirichitnis @FabFood4All & @FussFreeHelen
Closing date – last day of the month – 31st March 2016
You are welcome to link up one or two old posts, but please republish them
By entering you are agreeing to let us use an image from your entry on this site, and to pin to Pinterest
If blogging a recipe from elsewhere on the internet or a book please be mindful of copyright
But feel free to send to as many other events as you like, let’s help everyone save money!
Please visit a few other blogs who take part plus comment and share
This is a blog hop so please grab the code and share the linky on your site too.We look forward to seeing your entries!

<!– end LinkyTools script –>

Radha Krishna Bhavan – Tooting , a review

September 10, 2014 by manjirichitnis 7 Comments

On a dreary Saturday afternoon a few weeks ago after my weekly Indian shop form Dadu’s at Tooting, not feeling particularly in the mood to cook , we walked into Radha Krishna Bhavan for an early lunch . The place was open and barring one table we could pick and choose where to sit , unusual for a Saturday afternoon , little did I know that minutes later the place would be buzzing with activity.

This is a sea food lovers heaven with authentic ,well balanced south Indian cuisine. We ordered a starter of spicy Vadas – flat, fried lentil dough spiced with green chillies and onion , this was crunchy and delicious and just the thing needed on a boring Saturday afternoon when the weather was playing traunt ! (£2.95)

The first thing I noticed was the many sticker on the glass outside with various ratings from the Good Food Guide, Square Meal etc and a bright yellow mini menu saying ”3 courses for just £5.95′ ! Super ! That definitely drew us in.

But we decided to go a la Carte and ordered for some Kerala Fried Rice (£4.50)and Kerala Fish curry (£7.50) .The fish curry was yum but the portion size was a bit small to share , same with the rice and we found the rice had more than a generous use of oil but it was delicious all the same.

Hungry for more we decided to experiment with some Vellappam – a pancake made of fermented rice with ground coconut and coconut milk with a lacy egg like appearance . These were light yet filling and 2 panckakes per dish came with the curry at a combined price (£7.95 ) .The pancakes were mopped up with the accompanying curry – a spicy King Fish Malabar.

With no room left for dessert after this we decided to skip and just get ice lollies on our way home 😉

I’d definitely recommend you visit Radha Krishna Bhavan if you are looking for delicious and authentic flavours of South India at budget rates in a clean , welcoming atmosphere with quick service head (opposite Sainsburys on Tooting High Street)

*This review was written by me of my own accord . I bore the expense of this meal. All views expressed as always are my own and no monetary compensation of any sort by provided to me by either the restaurant or any other third party.All opinions expressed are valid for this particular visit .

Ressurecting LEFTOVERS ! A quick recipe for Phodnichi Khichadi

June 13, 2012 by manjirichitnis 2 Comments

Heya all ye blog readers, followers or mere net trawler’s!

I have a simple yet effective way of resurrecting plain white boiled/steamed rice and conjuring up a tasty spicy dish to allow for a guilt free ,time-saving recipe which will not only help you NOT die of guilt for throwing away rice that’s perfectly OK but just stale and also having the pleasure of cooking an easy peasy meal all on your own. Of course it’s NOT my own recipe but a hand me down from my mother! GAAH and YOU actually thought I was that creative …giggles to herself and continues typing …

Well you need, yes! Of course my dear genius some leftover white plain cooked rice.

Depending on bow much rice you have say roughly a medium sized soup bowl for example, you will need:

1.2 tablespoons oil

2.2 cloves of garlic with skin

3.1 medium sized red onion finely chopped and I mean FINELY !hehehe I like trying to sound very professional, am just joking here, chop it how you will!

4.few fresh green lovely curry leaves.

5.Turmeric Powder

6. Salt to taste

7.Chilli Powder

8.Pinch of Asafoetida

9. A pinch of each Jeera (Cumin seeds) & Mohri (Mustard Seeds)

10. A tiny squeeze of lime

11. Some finely chopped freshly coriander for garnish

12. One or two green chillies chopped

Ok now heat the oil in a pan , add the Hing (Asafoetida powder) , add the Mustard seeds and Cumin seeds and wait for the mustard seeds to crackle in the hot oil, then add the garlic finely chopped with the skin and let it turn brown and crisp , believe me,it adds a power packed punch to the flavour of the rice,then add some green chillies chopped to a size that you can pick them out if you don’t want to set your tongue on fire ! Then,in go the curry leaves and the chopped red onion,after the onions are nicely tossed and turned in the oil to give them just the soft and crunchy texture you need,toss in the rice and slightly turn it with your hand before you do to prevent it from sticking , it should open up so that the flavours of the tadka (seasoning ) touch EACH grain and coat it with their heavenly goodness !

Then add the turmeic powder, red chilli powder and mix well, cover the vessel and cook on a very low flame so as to prevent the rice from sticking to the pan at the bottom. Steam for some time and open the lid,squeeze a generous bit of lime on this dish and garnish with fresh coriander, you can even add a few bits of chopped fresh tomato of you like.

Serve HOT with any curry or ”leftover” dal reheated.

I LOVE eating this plain with a big dollop of curd or plain yogurt too !

See told you it was easy peasy !

Shahi Khichadi

April 9, 2012 by manjirichitnis 9 Comments

I have decided to finally upload some of the recipes which received a lot of comments on my Facebook food album and I ended up sending out the recipe by email to many of contacts . Here is one of the easier and more popular ones . When I was a kid when my mother said ”khaichadi” in response to what’s for dinner ? it usually meant that one of us feverish and needed something gentle on the tummy or one of us was trying to recover from an upset tummy .Of course the taste of the boiled rice and green gram halved and with skin on or the yellow version without skin , is ultimately satisfying a great comfort food when served piping hot with a dollop of ghee and some warm milk ,a good night’s sleep guaranteed !

But my version is spicy ,with a tasty twist and a lot of fun to cook and even more fun to eat .

I adopted this recipe from the way my mother makes khichadi and also from how my pal S of www.jainfoodie.com makes Jain Dal Khichadi . I choose to call it Shahi meaning Regal or Royal here because it is rather a posh version of the humble boiled version. Khichadi meaning an Indian for a slurpalicious RICE and lentil dish cooked like a pulav /pulao/pilau /pilaf.

Ingredients (enough to serve 2 with second and maybe a third helping !)

Rice 1 cup
A Mix of the following in equalish parts in the same cup used to measure the rice – Massor Dal also called Red Lentils-split and skinless, Moong Dal also called Green Gram yellow we will use the spilt skinless variety and the split green moong dal with green skin on , Urid Dal also called Black Gram halved with skin ,some Toor Dal also called pigeon peas – yellow spilt and skinless .
1 large red Onion
1 medium tomato
2-3 Bay leaves
Bits of Cinnamon bark
2 cloves of garlic smashed with skin on
2 green chillies
Jeera / Cumin
Hing / Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Red Chilli Powder
Turmeric Powder
2 small potatoes
Few Curry leaves
Few Cloves
Few black whole peppercorns
18. Oil for sauteing
Some Ghee – maybe 2 spoons – Clarified Butter

Method :

Wash the rice and lentils and place them in a pressure cooker ,add 4 cups (use same cup as the one used to measure the rice and the dals) of water and another to make it a little softer than regular rice ,pressure cook till 4 whistles are done.
Once the steam slowly releases from the cooker , you can open the lid and it will look like the picture below but a bit different in colour because when I made this I was short on red lentils so didn’t add them . Actually even you make this dish with rice and only yellow moong dal it will taste just as good 🙂

While the cooker is cooling down ,chop the potatoes into longish strips and stir fry them in hot oil till they turn brown, add some salt, sprinkled over them just as they get done, these potato fries are our garnishing to add that REAL REGAL or SHAHI touch to the dish . Once done keep them aside and STOP yourself from munching on them before your dish is ready , my husband managed to gobble quite a few ,pretending he was helping me ”stir” the onions while I clicked pictures ..grrrrr

Now Lets prepare the tadka /tarka or the tempering. First slice the onion and the tomato vertically into thinish slices .
Add oil about 2 large tablespoons into a pan and one teaspoon of ghee just for flavour and aroma , when this mix is hot add some hing , then add the jeera and the crushed garlic and the 2 green chillies spilt along the middle lengthwise as it opens them up and allows the pungent seeds to spread through the tempering , one kick ass way to add that hotttt KICK to the dish ,trust me this one is explosive spicy HOTT as it has all the ingredients to help the taste explode in your mouth, saute till the garlic is brown and the garlic’s skin starts to crackle , then add the cloves, the whole black peppercorns , bits of the barks of Cinnamon ,curry leaves, bay leaves and keep stiring this mixture to prevent charring or over heating ,it will look like in the picture below :

Then add the chopped onion, It should look like the picture below:

Then after a while when the onion has begun to turn a lovely pinkish ,brownish colour and looks the picture below it’s time to add the tomato .

Now add the vertically sliced tomato slices , I can assure you that now the potent aroma of all those lovely spices and the onion are stirring up quite an appetite inside you and making you hungrier every passing minute .

I dislike chunky bits of tomato floating in my mouth while I gobble up the khichadi so I jus a flat wooden spatula and gently ensure that the tomatoes are totally mashed in a way that allows the mixture to become one entity, it should look like in the picture below :

Add just a bit of red chilli powder and some turmeric powder to the mixture above and add salt to taste ,Now add the cooked rice and lentil mixture to the above tempered mix of spices ,onions and tomatoes ,mix well stirring well, add salt again enough to flavour the rice and lentil mix .

It’s almost done , just keep this on a low flame for about a minute or two to allow the flavours of the spices to penetrate deep inside the rice and lentils .

The SHAHI KHICHADI is now ready to be garnished! Yay 🙂

WOW now doesn’t that look awesome ? I am quite proud about this creative production from my kitchen , hope you relish it as much as I did errr we did , hubby had to agree 🙂
If you fear that all the spices may be a bit too much for your sensitive palate prepare a quick cooling cucumber and curd accompaniment . Beat 2 spoons of set yogurt or thick flowing yogurt and add tiny square bits of fresh cucumber , season with a bit of salt ,some sugar and some jeera powder to taste .

Enjoy !