Sunday 15 April 2012

Coconut and Tamarind Chutney


From The New Tastes of India, Das Sreedharan, Headline, 2001.

I thought I might go for an Indian meal so consulted my copy of The New Tastes of India. Firstly I settled on making this chutney.

A small amount of tamarind pulp was placed in a bowl with an equally small amount of hot water. With a spoon this was broken down as much as possible and then left for half an hour. It was then strained. I ended up with about a tablespoon of tamarind juice.

The tamarind was placed in a blender with coconut (the recipe called for fresh but I used mine from a packet), a couple of chopped green chillies, some ginger (I used half the amount in the recipe because I find they generally overdo the amount of ginger), a glove of garlic and a little salt. This was blended until it was as fine as I could make it. It was supposed to become a fine paste but this was beyond my blender’s abilities.



Before serving, some oil was heated in a frying pan and a teaspoon of mustard seeds added. When they were popping I added a teaspoon of urad dal, a couple of dried red chillies and some curry leaves from the garden. They were stirred for a while and then poured over the coconut mix.

I think it missed a little from not using fresh coconut but, all in all, it was a very acceptable chutney.

Taste: ✔✔✔
Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

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