Coconut Chutney

One of the world’s top 50 food is Masala Dosa. The most important accompaniment to dosa is this amazing coconut chutney. When I was little, dosa was pretty much my brekkie and lunch. And I hated this chutney. It tasted bland to my palette. Even when I had dosa at restaurants, my mum and I would do a swap. I would dive in to the cup of tomato chutney and mum would happily have this. My taste buds have changed now.

One common attribute, Sanju and I had was that both of us disliked this chutney, until few days back. This chutney tastes amazing with my kale khichdi. Super simple to make, the traditional recipe calls for roasted gram (which I don’t stock very often). Replaced that with garlic. And it was YUM.

You need:

• Shredded Coconut-1 cup (You get frozen ones in Indian groceries-Thaw them, they taste great too)
• Water-1 cup (more/less -cos it really depends on the brand of shredded coconut)
• Green chili-2 (for spicy), 1 (for mild to medium)
• Garlic-2 small pods
• Salt-1/2 tsp (add more if you think it needs more salt)
• Tamarind paste/Tamarind pulp-1/2 tsp
• Oil-1.5 tsp
• Mustard seeds-1 tsp
• Whole white lentils-1 tsp (optional)
• Curry leaves-1 sprig (optional-but tastes great)

Method:

• In a chutney jar/wet spice mixer, add coconut, water,garlic,salt and tamarinds paste. Process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl
• In a small pan, add oil, once hot, add mustard seeds, once they pop, (if you’re adding white lentils, add this now and keep stirring until they go golden brown, if you’re adding curry leaves, add that at the end(they pop, so drop them and move away), pour the oil over the chutney. Mix and serve.