All organic.. home-grown ingredients are awesome to have & to eat.. Don't you agree?? As a kid I remember my grandmother preparing this very fragrant chutney pudi from the freshest curry leaves available.. yup, plucking them from the 5 curry leaves tree we had in our garden :), using the copra she made from drying the excess coconut coconuts from our garden. There were 6 coconut trees in our garden. Loads of coconuts were always available. The excess ones were turned into copra & then taken to the oil mill by my grandmother to extract oil. Then she would use the oil to cook her yummy food or savouries..! Such memorable days...!
It is very common to see a curry leaves tree in almost every South Indian house. You your passing by a South Indian house if you can smell the tadka/tempering with the heavenly aroma of curry leaves. Along with the awesome fragrance that they impart.. they also have loads of medicinal value. Most of us have a tendency to keep the leaves aside when we eat a meal, this is an awesome way to consume the curry leaves & take in all its benefits.
I do not have my grandmothers recipe. Beginning of this month, K's granny came over to spend a week with us. I had loads of copra with me. I asked her if she could help me make some Curry leaves chutney pudi. K loves chutney pudi a lot. Whenever he see's the bottle he almost every time pops a spoon of it into his mouth. So K's Pati (granny in Tamil) helped me or rather I should say, taught me to make 2 kinds of chutney pudi. A curry leaves one and another coriander leaves kind. The recipe for the coriander leaves chutney pudi is slightly different from this one, so don't go around swapping the curry leaves with coriander leaves. I will post the curry leaves chutney pudi recipe soon.
I do not have pictures of the making of the chutney pudi, I wanted to click some pics with pati & I was so excited learning this recipe that I completely forgot about the camera. Next time I get down to making this one, I'll make sure I click pics.
I love curry leaves chutney pudi a lot as it makes me nostalgic. This was the only kind of chutney pudi my gran made for us. I have also received requests to post garlic, peanut, idli chutney pudi recipe's. All these will take some time as I have lots of chutney pudi in stock now. With just the two of us around I don't want to stock up loads of varieties & they going bad. So as & when my stock needs to be replenished I shall get down to making these. Until then I have this new recipe which will serve as a small project for you this weekend..
Ingredients: (15-20 servings) Preparation Time: 20-25 mins
Tur dal - 1/2 cup
Copra grated/desiccated coconut - 3/4 -1 cup
Black peppercorns - 10-12
Dried red chilli's - 15-16 byadgi chilli variety, you can use the other hotter varieties, use according to your taste
Curry leaves - 45-50 medium-sized leaves, washed, drained, wiped dry & leave it to dry on a kitchen towel
Tamarind - 1 marble-sized piece, make sure there are no seeds
Jaggery - 1.5 - 2 tbsp, powdered
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric - 1/8 tsp
Oil - half a tsp
Salt to taste - preferably use rock salt
Method:
Take a skillet, dry roast the dried red chilli's & the Tur dal. Keep tossing them around constantly & maintain heat at low. Once the fur dal begin to change colour to a light brownish & the chilli's too turn paler, turn the heat off. Transfer the ingredients to a plate and let it cool down to room temperature.
Meanwhile while the Tur dal & chilli's are cooling down, heat the oil in the skillet. Add the asafoetida & let it sizzle. Maintain heat at low. Now throw in the turmeric & the curry leaves. Fry till the curry leaves begin to lose their moisture and begin to turn crispier. Now add the copra and black peppercorns and toss it around for a minute or two. Turn the heat off. Transfer this to another plate. Let it cool down to room temperature.
Add the powdered jaggery, tamarind and salt to the roasted, cooled down dried red chilli's & dal mixture. You can pulse this mixture in a food processor till the ingredients are broken down. Next add in the roasted curry leaves mixture. Process all the ingredients till you get a coarse powder. In between you can taste & adjust the salt.
Transfer the contents to a plate. Let it dry out for about 15-20 mins (The jaggery & tamarind have some moisture content in them which will get transferred to the roasted ingredients). Transfer the chutney pudi to an airtight glass jar.
You are set for 2-3 months i.e if it lasts for that long..
Serving Suggestions:
Serve with any South Indian breakfast dishes like - Dosa, Idli, Upma etc as an accompaniment when you're in a hurry & really cannot get down to preparing a fresh coconut chutney.
In Mangalore we eat this chutney pudi by adding a tsp of coconut oil to a tbsp of chutney pudi, mixing the pudi/powder in the oil so that its easier to eat & tastier. But Iyengar's like to eat their chutney pudi with a tsp of ghee instead of oil. Do let me know if you have a new way to eat your chutney pudi..
You can make a butter chutney pudi sandwich.. believe me it's yum.. Tip:
