Tag Archives: Chutney

Mango Chutney

During a recent visit of my father to Jaffna, he brought back some mangoes from my mother’s childhood home. My mother said that the particular mango tree had been planted by her father. As the mangoes were half-ripe, cooking mangoes, my mother decided to make some chutney out of them. This is a simple, quick to prepare chutney. I have shared earlier a mango chutney recipe that my mother makes when she wants to store the chutney for a few days. I am sharing this instant mango chutney recipe with the Fiesta Friday group as well.

DSC01208Continuing with the theme of featuring south Indian singers whose voice I have enjoyed and appreciated along with the recipes this month and next, today’s featured musician is another of my mother’s favourite singers – renowned south Indian singer K.J.Yesudas. A classical trained musician, he began his movie playback singing career in the early 1960s. Yesudas is said to have sung and recorded over 50,000 songs over his five decade career in most Indian languages as well as foreign languages such as Arabic and Russian. I do not know how he managed the volume because it roughly translates to about 1000 songs a year. He was awarded the Padma Shri (1975) and the Padma Bhushan (2002) by the Indian government.

While selecting Yesudas song clips to share here, I decided to share first an excerpt from one of his older classical concert clips as he is foremost a classical Carnatic musician and I like his Carnatic music repertoire better than his songs for movies.

The second song is from the 1968 Malayalam movie Bharymar Sookshikkuka. This clip is a live performance of K.J. Yesudas with Chitra and Sujatha.

Wrapping up today’s music selection, the last clip is from a very famous popular Tamil song of Yesudas from the 1992 movie Mannan.

Hope you enjoyed the voice of K.J. Yesudas and do try out this chutney!
chutney

Mango Chutney

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

  • Mango – ½ cup, half-ripe
  • Onion – ¼ cup, chopped
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Clean and chop up the half-ripe mango. Rub in a little salt and allow it to marinate while you do the next step.
  2. Heat a tbsp oil in a pan. Temper the chopped onion and crushed chillies for a couple of minutes.
  3. Add the chopped and salted mango to the pan together with a tablespoon of sugar. Mix well and let it cook for a couple of minutes.
  4. Remove from heat and transfer the pan contents to a food processor and grind it.
  5. This simple mango chutney is nice on a sandwich.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan

Date chutney

The second recipe I would like to share today is my mother’s recipe for her version of date chutney. She is particularly fond of the unique flavour arising from the chilli infused date sauce.

Date chutney

Time taken: 10 mins

Serves 3 – 4

Date chutney

Ingredients:

  • Dates – 2 tbsp, finely chopped
  • Jaggery – 1 tsp
  • Brown sugar – 1 tsp
  • Water – 4 tbsp
  • Crushed chillies – ½ tsp
  • Cumin powder – ¼ tsp
  • Mixed 3C (cinnamon, cardamom, clove) powder – ¼ tsp
  • Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
  • Salt – pinch

Method:

  1. Heat the jaggery, brown sugar and water in a sauce pan, on low heat, stirring continuously for about 2 to 3 mins.
  2. Stir in ½ tsp crushed chillies and ¼ tsp cumin powder and cook for a minute.
  3. Add the mixed 3C powder to the pan and let the sauce simmer for a minute.
  4. When the sauce starts to boil and bubble, add the sesame seeds. Mix well.
  5. Add the chopped dates and continue to let the sauce simmer on low heat for a few minutes till the sauce thickens and the liquid starts drying up.
  6. Season with a pinch of salt before removing from heat.
  7. The chutney can be kept for several days in an airtight container.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Ambarella chutney

Update (02/07/2014): As I wished to send in a dish to the first virtual vegan linky party initiated by Annie, Poppy and Angela, I decided to send in an old recipe that I had shared on my blog in its early days. So, I am sharing this chutney under the side dish category for the potluck.

The chutney recipe for today is ambarella (spondias dulcis) chutney. Ambarella is said to be good for people with diabetes.

raw ambarella

Ambarella chutney

Time taken: 15 – 20 mins

Serves 4

Ambarella chutney

Ingredients:

  • Ambarella – 3
  • Cinnamon – 1” piece
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp
  • Salt, to taste

Method:

  1. Peel the three ambarellas. Chop up the ambarella into 5 or 6 pieces each and put them in a pan. The middle portion is difficult to remove or chop up so it can be left as it is and included in the pan.
  2. Add 1 cup of water or just enough to cover the ambarella pieces.
  3. Add a piece of cinnamon and some salt, to taste, to the pan. Cover and cook for about 10 mins.
  4. If the water has completely dried up, add ½ cup of water.
  5. Add 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp crushed chillies to the pan.
  6. Increase heat and cook for some minutes till the chutney comes together and it is no longer watery but rather a thick sauce-like consistency.
  7. Remove from heat and transfer to serving bowl.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Mango chutney

Today, I thought of sharing two of my mother’s chutney recipes.

Raw mangoes

Mango chutney

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 4Mango chutney

Ingredients:

  • Mango – 1, unripe
  • Onion – ¼, chopped
  • Malu miris/ capsicum – 1, chopped
  • Mustard – 1 tsp
  • Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
  • Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
  • Sugar – 1 tbsp
  • Vinegar – 1 tsp (optional – best to add, if you want to keep chutney for some days)
  • Turmeric – ½ tsp
  • Salt, to taste
  • Low fat oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

  1. Wash the mango, de-seed and chop up the mango with the skin into 1 inch slices.
  2. Marinate the chopped up mango pieces with salt and turmeric. Keep aside.
  3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the mustard and fennel seeds. As they start to splutter, add the chopped onion and malu miris.
  4. After a few minutes of frying or once the onions become pinkish, add the marinated pieces of mango and mix well.
  5. Cover and cook on low heat for 5 mins.
  6. Remove cover and stir.
  7. Add 1 tsp of crushed chillies to the pan. Mix well and cover and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
  8. Remove cover again and this time, add 1 tbsp of sugar and the optional 1 tsp vinegar.
  9. Mix well and cover and cook for a few more minutes.
  10. Remove from heat and mix well before transferring to the serving bowl.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Vallarai salad and chutney

The first recipe for today is vallarai salad followed by vallarai chutney. Vallarai/ Gotukola (Centella Asiatica) is a herb used in Ayurvedic medicine, traditional Chinese as well as African medicine. It is said to improve memory and some believe youthfulness.

Bunch of Vallarai/ Gotukola

Bunch of Vallarai/ Gotukola

(a) Vallarai salad

Time taken: 10 mins

Serves 3 or 4

Vallarai salad

Ingredients

  • Vallarai bunch – 2 cups, when finely chopped
  • Tomato – 1 medium or grated coconut – 1 tbsp
  • Chilli – 1
  • Onion – ½
  • Pepper and Salt, to taste
  • Lime juice – 1 tbsp, adjust as preferred

Method:

  1. Wash the bunch of vallarai leaves thoroughly and then finely chop them up and put them in a large salad mixing bowl.
  2. Chop up the tomato, chilli and onion and add to the bowl. For those who don’t like tomatoes, substitute with freshly scraped coconut.
  3. Sprinkle some pepper and salt, to taste and add the lime juice.
  4. Toss well and serve immediately.

(b) Vallarai chutney

Time taken: 5 mins

Serves 3

Vallarai chutney

Ingredients:

  • Vallarai – 2 cups, finely chopped
  • Freshly scraped coconut – ½ cup
  • Onion – ½ chopped
  • Green chillies – 2
  • Lime juice, to taste

Method:

  1. Blend the 2 cups of finely chopped vallarai with ½ cup of freshly scraped coconut, ½ onion and 2 chillies.
  2. Squeeze some fresh lime juice over the chutney and mix before serving immediately.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.