tamarind chutney – The Metrognome

Mumbai is home to some awesome cuisines and the secret ingredient that rocks even the dullest fare – the humble chutney.

by Mamta D | @silverlightgal on Twitter

In 1990, when an NRI woman entrepreneur, Namita Panjabi, opened her first Indian restaurant in Chelsea, London, she named it Chutney Mary to commemorate the humble Indian condiment that is today making waves all across the globe. Originally called chatni, this ubiquitous condiment has its roots in Eastern India as early as the 16^th century.

As you move from one region to another in India, you will come across a variety of ways in which chutney is prepared.

Chutney may be raw or cooked; the former is a concoction of vegetables and the latter a mixture of chopped fruit, vegetables, vinegar and spices.

An Indian housewife can transform an otherwise drab meal into an interesting fare simply by using her imagination and producing innovative varieties of chutneys. Raw radishes, tomatoes, onions even boiled gourd peels and dried orange peels have their own special chutneys.

Chutneys have exceptional medicinal benefits too. Chutney prepared from fresh green curry leaves is said to be an excellent source of iron and protein. Though they were never allowed to go outside frequently in the early days, Indian women nevertheless had extreme ingenuity and skill and demonstrated this in churning out one variety of chutneys after another.

When it was found that these raw chutneys could not last more than a day, the ladies applied further ingenuity and came up with yet another trump card – chutney powder. Spices were roasted and ground with bits and pieces of dried vegetables, peels or leaves. For instance, curry leaves were dried in the sun and finely powdered with roasted spices. The end result – a long lasting, tasty, tangy chutney powder.

Here in Mumbai, we can come across these 10 types of chutneys:

The fiery red lasoon or garlic chutney

The ‘lasoon chutney’, a concoction of garlic and red-hot chillies, garnishes meals to add a fiery dash or to just the local dialect, ‘mirchify’ the meal, be it a dal rice or a simple fare of bhakar. The lasoon chutney is also popular with vada pav makers, who liberally spread it on the pav before dumping the potato vada on it.

The green pudina/dhania chutney

The green chutney typically made of fresh coriander leaves (dhania) or mint leaves (pudina), ginger, garlic, salt and chillies is often used in preparing sandwiches. It can also make a drab chapati tastier when spread over it.

The mirchi thecha

A coarsely ground mixture of raw green chillies, roasted peanuts, salt and garlic and optionally, a few drops of lime juice, this is a quickie, in the sense that it can be made within minutes, with the slightest of efforts (in pic on right).

The coconut chutney

This goes well with sabudana wadas, steamed idlis, dosas, and the like. It’s often made of freshly grated coconut, salt, green chillies, and a little bit of tamarind, with a slight variation here and there.

The sweet-sour chaat chutney

Every streetside chaat vendor swears by this. From the bhel puri to the sev puri to the paani puri, this chutney is a given in every chaat dish. In swanky restaurants, there is a more elegant version on offer, but when it comes to lip smacking, finger licking taste, the street side version wins hands down.

Pithle (also called Bombay chutney)

A typical Maharashtrian favourite, this one is made of besan or gram flour paste, and is served as an accompaniment to poori, chapatis, and so on (in pic on left). Though, unlike the other chutneys, this one is not entirely made of raw stuff but requires some amount of cooking on the stove; it can be made in a jiffy and requires very few ingredients.

Raw mango or kairi chutney

This is a seasonal chutney and is made only in the summer. The spicy tangy combination of raw green mangoes (kairis) with red chillies, topped with a seasoning of mustard seeds, is set to be a mouthwatering winner when served in any menu. People eat it with dosas, pooris, chapatis, and even mix it with plain steamed rice.

Tomato chutney

Though originally a South Indian delicacy, today it has been well adopted into the Maharastrian palate. Made from ripe red tomatoes, cooked for long hours on a slow flame with lots of oil and spices, this one can last a whole year and is often stashed away in bottles for a rainy day.

Radish or mooli chutney

Again, this is an import from other States, which has slowly made its way into Maharastrian homes. Ideal for the chill winter months, this heat-inducing radish chutney is made of raw radish, garlic, salt, jaggery, and either red or green chillies.

Pineapple chutney

Yet another outlander to the traditional Marathi cuisine, this one has probably been smuggled into the State by the Maharashtra-Karnataka (food) border outlaws. It is sweet, spicy, and tangy in parts, because of the pineapple chunks, the red chillies and the tamarind that goes into its making.

Did we miss any chutneys that are commonly available in Mumbai? Tell us about them in the comments section below.

(Pictures courtesy www.iskcon.net.au, vegetarianzest.blogspot.com, www.madhurasrecipe.com, www.saffronsunshine.com, whatscookinginyourworld.blogspot.com)

Chutney bana do

What’s food without chutneys, right? Savour your food with three delectable ones – our food writer dishes out three recipes.

by Anurita Gupta

Maar maar ke teri chutney bana doonga! We can’t get enough of this Bollywood dialogue, right? After all, chutney is super important in our desi lives.

Jokes apart, the incredibly delicious ‘Indian chutney’ has spawned many foreign copy cats with fancy fruit and what-not. But asli chutney is something else! With the perfect balance of khataas, mithaas and mirchi masala, it features at the top of any Indian’s culinary list. Of course, be it Mumbai ki chaat or Gujarati thaali, everything is incomplete without chutney. Not only can it make bland dal chawal a lot more interesting, but is a power-packed source of nutrition as well.

Considering that it has both fruit and spices, the nutritional benefits are doubled wonderfully, namely that chutneys aid digestion. Chutneys come in several flavours, which make them naturally sweet or sour, depending on the kind of fruit or vegetable used.

This brilliant Indian sauce has in fact travelled the seven seas. The West has pretty much accepted it as part of their culinary existence, with it being almost as popular as Basmati rice. It can be bought over the counter, but it tastes the best when made absolutely fresh in the mortar and pestle, just the way our grannies used to.

For us Mumbaikars, it is impossible to imagine sev puri or bhel without the khatti meethi, green and red chutneys.

The khajoor and imli red chutney: This chutney is the life line for all kinds of chaat. My favourite way to enjoy this one is when it is liberally garnished fresh dahi wada. This one is a sure shot hit with anything from ragda patties, to khaman dhokla, samosa pav, to sev puri and my favourite, dahi batata puri.

Here’s how you make it: In a thick-bottomed pan, pour 3 cups of water and add a ball of imli (about 200 gm), a handful of dates and 150 gms of sugar, and let it simmer till the mixture becomes mushy. Then take it off the flame and let it cool. Once cool, whizz in a blender until smooth. Put this mixture back in the pan, on a medium flame and add one teaspoon each of saunf (fennel), roasted and ground jeera (cumin seeds) and chilli powder and salt according to taste. Once the sauce is boiled, take it off heat. You can add water or cook it down based on the consistency you want.

Hot tip: Try adding thin slices of banana to this imli-khajoor ki chutney and enjoying it as a fruit fondue of sorts with apples, mango, chikoo and pineapple.

Green dhaniya chutney: This one is the more robust version from the khatta family of chutney. Usually seen as an accompaniment to succulent kebabs, it can be made with lots of green chillies to add a special smack of heat. Again, this is a universal companion to all chaats and of course, the bhajjis and pakoras. My favourite way to enjoy it is with palak patta crisp pakoras.

Here’s how you make it: In a blender, put a big bunch of dhaniya patta (coriander leaves) and whizz until the leaves turn to puree. To that add 7-8 cloves of garlic and an inch of ginger. You can also add a few chillies depending on the amount of teekha you can handle. Then add a teaspoon of dry mango powder or juice of two lemons and salt to taste. Blend again with a little water. Now you can add some mint puree or some curd or even the tamarind chutney to make your own concoction.

Hot tip: Try adding a little radish (mooli) along with curd in dhaniya chutney and enjoy with besan ka cheela (gramflour pancakes) on a rainy evening. You can also add dry pomegranate seeds to mint and dhaniya chutney. It tastes absolutely brilliant and is known to augment digestion.

Garlic chutney: This one is also a hot favourite amongst Mumbaikars. Its dry version is made with sun dried garlic and chilli. It tastes superb with vada pav. The wet garlic chutney goes famously with the South Indian cuisine. You can enjoy stews with appam and this heady mix of onion garlic and tamarind.

To make this, put 10 cloves of garlic, 5 red chillies and 5 small onions with a teaspoon of tamarind pulp in the blender. Heat one teaspoon of oil in a pan. Add half a teaspoon of mustard seeds and some curry leaves. Once they splutter, add this mixture and cook on medium flame. Keep adding water in order to prevent from getting too thick. If the chutney starts sticking then keep on adding oil little by little. Once the chutney is thoroughly cooked, take it off heat and let it cool. I personally prefer this one to its traditional coconut counterpart.

I guess I can go on talking about various chutneys that adorn the Indian dining table! But the craving that has set in thanks to writing this column is forcing me to run to the bhelwallah downstairs and enjoy his special dahi batata puri with loads of imli chutney on top. Slurp!

Anurita Gupta is a media professional who is passionate about two things – food and radio. Her love for all things food makes her a foodie with a cause.

(Pictures courtesy commons.wikimedia.org, bombybo.com, priyaraosrecipes.blogspot.com, vineelascooking.blogspot.com)