Chutneys and bhajis

For me, chutney was always synonym with coconut chutney. I started eating different types of chutneys after going to Bangalore. I liked to eat these chutneys with dosas or idlis. So I keep searching for these tasty chutney recipes.

This recipe is from a TV show. I am not a big fan of raw onion because of its smell. So when I saw this recipe for the first time, I thought it might smell of onions even though this chutney is fried after grinding. Thats the reason I didn’t make it for a very long time. But few weeks back, while going through my diary I found this recipe. I tried it and it was fantastic.

Ingredients:
2 cups onion pieces
5-6 red chilies
1/4 tea spn tamarind extract (thick extract of 2-3 pieces of tamarind)
1 tea spn jaggery
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves
Oil
Salt

Method:
Heat oil, add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves and fry for sometime.
Grind the seasoning and all other ingredients to a paste without adding too much water.
Heat a little oil and fry the chutney till the water is evaporated and the chutney is well cooked.

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 15mins

PS: I ground it to a coarse paste. But I feel it will taste better if you can grind it to smooth paste.

Aayi serves this bhaji with chapathi during Saturdays when we don’t eat nonveg, garlic and onions. I had written more about these fasting days in my potato bhaji with poha masala post. Usually this and chapathi are served for breakfast. Aayi has many such no-onion, no-garlic side dishes that go well in such days.

This bhaji was always at the back of my mind, but I had never prepared it. But after coming to US, I needed something to go with chapathi in my husband’s lunchbox. I was bored of making same thing again and again, so I asked Aayi and prepared this. This bhaji has only a few very common ingredients, but the bhaji turns out to be very very tasty.

Ever since I heard ginger helps in reducing headaches, I am making this bhaji as well as ginger tea whenever possible.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped boiled potatoes
1 and 1/2 tea spns grated or finely chopped ginger
1/2 tea spn cumin seeds
3-4 curry leaves
3-4 green chilies
1 tbl spn grated coconut
2-3 strands of coriander leaves
A pinch turmeric
Oil
Salt

Method:
Heat oil and add cumin seeds. When they are fried, add ginger, curry leaves and slitted chilies. Fry for sometime. Add potatoes, turmeric and 2 cups of water. Add chopped coriander leaves, coconut and salt. Cook for another 1-2mins.
Serve hot.

Serves : 2-3
Preparation time : 15mins

This is a dish I have grown up eating. Aayi makes this with rice rotti(alayle pita rotti) for breakfast. The cooked masoor and the garam masala gives a very different aroma to this dish. This tastes good when it is made very spicy and goes very well with the bland taste of rotti.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup masoor(whole)
1/2 cup onions(chopped)
1/2 cup potato(chopped)
3/4 cup coconut(fresh or frozen)
3-4 cloves
2″ piece cinnamon
1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
3-4 red chilies
1/2 tea spn tamarind extract (or use 2 small pieces of normal tamarind)
3-4 pepper
Oil
Salt

Increase the spices if required.

Method:
Soak masoor in water for around 1hr (this helps to cook masoor faster).
Cook masoor with onion and potato (Just 1-2 whistles if using cooker).
Heat a little oil and add cloves, cinnamon, pepper and coriander seeds. Grind them with coconut, red chilies and tamarind.
Add this masala to masoor and cook for around 5-10mins.
Serve with rice rotti(alayle pita rotti).

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 30mins

The Konkani name of eggplant is “Vayngana”, ‘n’ is pronounced by nose, but usually while typing, I have seen it is written as ‘Vaygana’. The name “bajji” is a bit confusing as this is not the normal deep fried fritter. I am yet to find out the significance of this name.

This dish is a kind of “Baingan ka bhartha”, but the Konkani ‘bhartha’ or ‘bharth’ has the ground coconut chutney in it. For ‘bajji’ we do not grind coconut. Both have exact same ingredients, but the preparation method makes them taste very different. But there are few people who call this dish as ‘bharth’.

This dish is usually served with a kind of rice rotti prepared on banana leaf. This rotti is called “mumbri” or “cholkya vayli rotti”. This is my favorite breakfast combination. Alternatively, this can even be served as a side dish with rice and papad.

Bajji is also called ‘Karmana’ and when this is prepared with the green eggplants called “gulla”, this is called “gulla karmana”.

Ingredients:
Eggplant 1 big
Coconut 1/2 cup
Green chillies or red chillies 3-4
Tamarind 1/2 tea spn
Asafoetida a pinch
Salt

If the eggplants available in India are used, increase the number. After smoking, at least 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of pulp should remain.
1/2 cup of chopped onions can also be included in this dish. But I prefer the version without onion.

Method:
Smoke the eggplant as explained here. Peel the skin and put the pulp in water.

Keep it in water for 5-10mins and discard the water.
Mix coconut, green chilies, tamarind, onion(if using), asafoetida and salt with hand.

Now add the pulp and mix well. Add 1-2tbl spn of water if required.
Serve with rice rotti (mumbri).

Serves : 2-3
Preparation time : 15mins

PS: Will post the mumbri recipe tomorrow.

All these days I was including coriander leaves in coconut chutney and call it ‘coriander chutney‘. But I knew I was missing something. I always loved the chutney that my friend Poornima prepares with masala dosa. But out of sheer laziness, I always skipped it whenever I prepared her version of masala dosa. I took the recipe of her chutney long back, but never tried it. This time I made sure to prepare this and the combination tasted divine.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut
3-4 green chilies
5-6 curry leaves
1/4 cup coriander leaves
2-3 garlic cloves(small) (if using American big garlic, use just 1)
1/4 cup dalia split (Kadle pappu/hurigadale/chutney daal/putani)
1/4 tea spn tamarind extract
Oil
Salt

Method:
Heat oil and fry green chilies. Grind them along with all other ingredients.
Serve with dosa or idli.

Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 10mins

Note: In the following picture, the dal at the right should be used for this chutney. Notice the difference between normal chana dal and this dal. (This picture is for beginners for more clarity).

Usually in North India and in Marathi households, chapathi/phulka is prepared along with lunch or dinner. But Konkani lunch does not include them. We make chapathis for breakfast with various types of potato bhajis.

During normal days, mom serves chapathi and egg curry/omlet/bullseye. But during fasting, like in festivals or ‘‘panchami ‘- fifth tithi or ‘ekadashi’-11th tithi, where some people don’t eat meat, onion, garlic, rice items, she serves chapathi with potato bhaji (without onion, garlic) or simple upma.

Usually for fasting potato bhajis, poha massala is used because it gives a distinguishing taste to the bhaji. I had thought this bhaji is only prepared at my home, but when I got a request for this bhaji, I was very surprised. Since the poha masala is readily available at our place, this delicious bhaji gets ready in 10mins (depending on the speed with which potato cooks).

Ingredients:
2 cups boiled and chopped potatos
1/2 tea spn mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves
A pinch asafoetida
3/4 tea spn poha masala
A pinch turmeric
1 tbl spn coconut
Oil
Salt

In addition to above, I used few cumin seeds in seasoning. But since cumin is already there in poha masala, it is NOT required in this dish.

Method:
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves and asafoetida.
Add potatos, turmeric and little water. Add the poha masala, salt, coconut and cook for 2-3mins.
Serve hot with chapathi.

Serves : 3
Preparation time : 10-15mins

I dont know how I forgot to blog about this delicious recipe. One of my cousin recently reminded me of this.

At our home, we call this Aayi’s bhaji (just to distinguish from Amma’s bhaji!!!). This is prepared with either puri or dosa.

In Konkani Paattal means ‘a substance which has more liquid’ (Please somebody give me a more suitable word here). This name is given because the other bhaji I mentioned above is a dry bhaji.
Though the ingredients for both the bhajis are exactly same, because of the different procedures of cooking, they have a great difference in taste.

Ingredients :
Potatoes 3-4
Onions 2-3
Coconut ½
Cloves(lavang) 5-6
Cinnamon(Chakke,dalchini) 2 inch piece
Tamarind 1/2 tea spn
Pepper   5-6
Red chillies 5-6
Coriander seeds 1 tea spn
Oil 1 tea spn
Salt

Method:
Heat the oil. Fry cloves, cinnamon, red chillies,pepper and coriander seeds. Grind with coconut, tamarind and salt.
Peel and cut potatoes in small pieces. Cut onions. Cook onions and potatoes in water. When cooked, add the ground masala. Cook for 10min. Serve with dosa or puri.

Serves : 4
Preparation time : 30min