Raw mango chutney

Ingredients:

2 cups raw mango skin discarded and grated
2 dry red chilies (roasted)
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (roasted)
2 tbsp sugar
salt for taste

Seasoning:(optional)
1 tsp Mustard seeds
Hing powder

Method:
Grind all the ingredients together except the seasoning. Add a few tbsps of water to grind to a smooth chutney consistency. Do a taste check, if the raw mango is not tart enough for the chutney you could add some tamarind at this point and grind again.
Next comes the seasoning which is optional but it give a good aroma to the chutney. Heat a tsp of oil, add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to splutter turn off the heat and add a dash of hing powder.

Serve chutney with dosas, idlis or as an accompaniment to a rice dish.

Green Coconut Chutney

Back in India, Mom would make Idli or Dosa on Sundays for breakfast and serve it with coconut chutney. There are 3 variations of coconut chutneys and they come in 3 different colors- white, green and red. Today I am sharing the green version.

Ingredients:
1 cup Shredded coconut
3 green chilies
2 sprigs of mint
2 sprigs of cilantro
1/4 tsp Tamarind powder or Lemon juice
Salt as per taste


Method:
Grind all the ingredients together. Can be served with Dosa, Idli, vadas.

Tamarind Chutney

Tamarind chutney is a thick sweet and sour chutney usually used as a dip or topped on chaats for a tangy taste. It gets its sweetness from Dates and sugar, sourness from tamarind and lemon juice. I took this recipe from Marlena Spieler's 'Yummy Potatoes', pretty much followed the recipe as is. I have not dared make this chutney before because all the recipes I have come across called for soaking or boiling for long hours. This recipe beats them all because I got it ready in less than 10 mins!

Ingredients:
2 tbsp Tamarind paste or powder. If using fresh tamarind, remove seeds and then soak in hot water for about 20 mins.
5 seedless dates. I had the wet kind we get in Costco.
2 tsp Cumin seeds
1 cup water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

Method:
Boil all the ingredients together for 5 mins. After it cools down grind it to a fine paste.

Mint chutney

I grow my own mint and have an abundant supply of fresh mint year long. Having a perennial supply of chutney would be a wonderful thing but alas they dont have a long shelf life. So when I make a big batch of chutney I keep a little in the refrigerator and the rest in the freezer.
Mint chutney is the accompaniment to a lot of Indian snacks, like bhajiyas, wadas plus its super simple to make.

Ingredients:
1 cup Fresh Cilantro washed and stems removed
1 cup Fresh Mint washed and stems removed
3 tbsp grated coconut(fresh or frozen)
2 tbsp Fried channa daal
5-6 Green chilies or as per taste(I ran out of green chillies so substituted it with 4tsp of red chili powder, it turned out equally good.)
3 tbsp lemon juice
Salt as per taste


Grind all the ingredients together. The greens already have water in them so be careful how much water you add. I usually keep a glass of water handy and keep adding it in the mixer when the ingredients become too dry to grind(you will know because the mixer will start making a loud noise when stuff in it gets too dry to grind.)
Do a taste check. This is how I usually do it.
- If there is less of anything like salt or spiciness, you are lucky its a easy fix, just add a little of whats missing do a quick pulse in the mixer.
- If its over spicy, add some lemon juice. Sourness kills spice, a useful tip from my mom.
- If its salty then there is more work needed to fix it, you will have to add more of all the ingredients except salt and re-grind. I hate to get in this situation and usually add less salt because its easy to add more later if needed.