A Tale of Two Chutneys

Let's get down and dirty about two Indian chutneys; one from the North and the other from the South.

Everyone gets to compare and contrast. This is more about you than India.

Are you lazy or involved? Are you complex or simple?

Ideally, they'd be ground with with a mortar and pestle similar to the Mexican molcajete, but who is the CC kidding? If he starts giving instructions for mortar and pestle, he'll lose what limited audience he has already.

Anyway, both the chutneys rock; and they are delightfully spreadable like a ..., well, you folks get the metaphor, right?

We do them in reverse order of difficulty.

South Indian Coconut Chutney

Ingredients

2 tbsp chana daal
1 cup cilantro leaves
1" ginger (coarsely diced)
5-6 Thai green chillies (substitute with 2 serranos)
1 cup coconut flakes (frozen is not just fine, it's brilliant!)

1 tbsp mustard
2 tbsp urad daal
1/2 tsp asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves

salt
lime juice (to taste)

Recipe

Roast the chana till it is dark golden. It's already yellow so there's a fine line between roasting and burning.

Blend the chana, cilantro, coconut, ginger, and green chillies with some salt and lime juice. Try and blend it with the least amount of water so that you can control it later.

Heat some oil in a pan. Toss in the mustard seeds until they splutter and burst. Toss in the asafoetida, the urad, and the curry leaves.

Toss in this mixture inside the blended mixture.

Yeah, this is hard. You don't want to heat up the blended mixture. There are instruments and techniques but this is not something that can easily be described.

You can always just add a tiny amount of water to the fried mixture, wait for it to cool, and then mix the two.

Just do your best. This is hard to screw up.

North Indian Chutney

4 cups cilantro leaves
1 cup peanuts (shelled, roasted)
5-6 Thai green chillies (substitute with 2 serranos.)
salt
lime juice.

Recipe

There's even a version that skips the peanuts but the CC likes them 'cause they add some zing.

Toss the stuff in a blender. Blend till smooth-ish.

Easy peasy.

Cilantro Chutney

Simple, straightforward with modern technology, and tasty (unless you're one of those wierdo's to whom cilantro tastes soapy.)

Nothing like fresh bread lathered with this stuff.

Ingredients

3 bunches cilantro tops washed clean
1/2 cup peanuts
1/4 cup lime juice
6 birds-eye chillies, chopped into rounds (substitute with serranos)
salt to taste

Recipe

Dump in a blender, and grind to a thick paste by adding water only if necessary.

Salsa : Corn with chipotles en adobo

The CC has forgotten where he came across this recipe but it is so simple that it should appeal to both your senses, and your love of having good food without too much bother.

No matter what quantity the CC makes of this one, it always disappears! Always!

The CC once doubled up thinking he could get some for later but no! it was gone by the end of the evening.

Ingredients

8 cups corn (frozen is fine, just thaw it.)
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 can chipotles en adobo

Recipe

Heat the oven to 350F. Spread the corn in a flat tray, and let it dry out for 30 minutes or so. It needs to be fairly dry but watch carefully since the stuff burns easily.

Reconstitue the sun-dried tomatoes in hot water. Dice them into very fine pieces.

Toss the corn, the sun-dried tomatoes, some of the water from the tomatoes, and diced chipotles en adobo with some of the adobo sauce to taste.

Corn Salsa

So the CC is invited to the birthday party of some friends, and was charged with making a bunch of salsas for the occasion.

Over the years, this corn salsa (yes, I'm using the term loosely) has been one of the biggest hits at the CC's parties.

Truth be told, the CC doesn't even remember where he got this recipe.

Ingredients

8-10 cobs of fresh corn (or 2 packages frozen)
6 sun-dried tomatoes (reconstituted with hot water, and then diced)
2-3 chipotles en adobo (diced)

Recipe

Place the corn on a baking sheet, and roast it in the oven at 300F for roughly an hour. Check towards the end, otherwise the corn might get burnt.

Mix the three things together, and add a bit of the sun-dried tomato water.

That's it! The simplicity belies the brilliance of flavors. Only problem? The dried corn sticks to your teeth. Heheheheh.