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: ✔✔✔
