Coconut Peanut Sesame Chutney

Blogging Marathon#65: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Coconut-Sesame Chutney from Priya

I'm always looking for different chutneys to serve with idli, dosa or upma. So when Priya did a whole month of Dosa-chutney recipes for the mega marathon, I knew I will have a lot of interesting chutneys and dosas bookmarked to try. 

I really wanted to try her jackfruit savory dosa and the breadfruit peel chutney, but haven't had a chance. Do check Priya's space from some amazing Indian and International dishes, her bakes are out of this world.

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Lehsun Chutney (Rajasthani Spicy Garlic Chutney)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 12: L for Lehsun Chutney

We are already in the middle of the week with Rajasthani cuisine. Today's dish is a super spicy and delicious Garlic chutney made in the Rajasthani style. It is a great condiment to serve with rotis or to use as a spread for sandwiches.

When I started researching for Journey through the Cuisines, the first step was to decide the 4 states I wanted to cook from. Then find the dishes in alphabetical order and the final step was to look for recipes from authentic sources. So I tried to cook from recipes that were posted by bloggers from respective states. Hence most of my Bengali dishes were from Bengali bloggers Sandeepa and Soma. I also tried to stick to the recipe as much as possible without many substitutions except for may be adjusting the ingredient quantities.

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Doon Chetin (Apple Chutney)

I saw the recipe for this Apple chutney called Doon Chetin on Vaishali's Kashmiri thali and wanted to try it. This chutney is spicy and sweet and tasted yummy when scooped onto the rotis. It takes just a few minutes to make this chutney, so give it a try if you are a lover of spicy, sweet food. This is part of my Kashmiri Thali.

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Erra Karam Dosa

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 7: Andhra Pradesh -- Erra Karam Dosa

I am making a dish from my home state of Andhra today. It was quite a task deciding on dishes for this week. I had big plans but things got hectic and I lost track of time. Finally I decided on making simple recipes that have been on my bookmarks for a long time.

This Erra Karam Dosa from Suma's blog is something I have been planning to make for a while now. It is a spicy and delicious variation of dosa from the Rayalaseema region in Andhra. According to Suma it is a dish that is a popular street food.

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Cherry Tomato Pachadi (Cherry tomato Chutney)

Cherry tomatoes have lately become my absolute favorite. I buy a big tub of them from BJ's and use them in different dishes. They are so juicy and have just the perfect taste. I planted a cherry tomato plant in my garden this year, I'm waiting for my harvest.

After adding them to salads, pastas and other non-Indian dishes, I wanted to make something Indian with them. After a quick call to my mom, I set out to make this quick, easy and tasty cherry tomato pachadi.

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Kakarakaya Pachadi (Bittergourd Chutney)

I am not a big fan of spicy Indian style pickles. My mom makes sure she keeps me stocked with fresh pickles every year, but I rarely eat them. In my house, my husband is the major consumer of these spicy pickles. He also likes the simple chutneys made with vegetables, so I make them occasionally. They keep well in the fridge for 4~5 days.

I saw this pachadi/ chutney recipe made with bitter gourd/ kakarakaya on a cooking show. Recipe is very simple to make and the method of making is quite interesting. Bitter gourd is usually cooked with lot oil for a very long time to reduce the bitterness, but in this recipe it is ground into a coarse paste and then cooked in little bit of oil until it is cooked through.

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Cranberry Pachadi (Cranberry Chutney)

Cranberries are in season during the holidays and are used to make cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. All the stores carry cranberries and I over-zealously bought a big bag for myself. I wanted to make some cranberry sauce for my Thanksgiving series and even found a recipe that I liked. But cranberry sauce is usually served with turkey and I was not sure which vegetarian dish goes well with cranberry sauce. So decided against making it.
Now I had the whole bag staring at me from the fridge. So I froze half of the cranberries for later use (at least they won't stare at me until I open the freezer, which is not as much as the fridge -- clever, isn't it??) Anyway I used some to make this warm cranberry cider and the rest to make this tangy cranberry chutney.

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Sorakaya thokku pachadi (Bottlegourd peel Chutney)

I told you about the 3 ft sorakaya/ bottle gourd from my cousin's garden last week. The skin or the peel of that gourd was so tender I didn't feel like throwing it out. Also since I knew that it was grown without any harmful pesticides -- I wanted to make a chutney/ pachadi using it.

Peel of bottlegourd and ridgegourd (beerakaya) are often used to make chutneys. I usually throw the peel out because I'm not really sure what the vegetable went through before it came into my kitchen. But the peels are really healthy with good does of vitamins and also fiber. Finally with my cousin's organic bottle gourd I got to make this thokku pachadi (peel chutney). Had to ask my mom for the recipe, hence linking it to Valli's 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge' event.

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Nepali Tomato Chutney (Tomato Achar)

This is a very tasty and spicy chutney. Tastes great with rice or roti or as a sandwich spread.

Recipe adapted from here:

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 2 medium

Red Chilies - 3 (fresh ones, not dried)

Ginger - 1" piece, finely grated

Garlic - 4 cloves, thinly sliced

Ground Coriander - ½tsp

Ground Cumin - ½tsp
Mustard seeds - ½tsp
Fenugreek Seeds - ½tsp

Turmeric - ½tsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Dry roast the tomatoes in a skillet until nicely roasted on all sides. Remove the tomatoes and add the red chilies to the skillet. Dry roast the chilies until charred.
• Let the tomatoes and chilies cool. Peel the tomatoes; chop both the tomatoes and chilies. Reserve all the tomato juice.
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauce pan, add the mustard and fenugreek seeds. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the grated ginger and sliced garlic. Cook till the garlic is lightly browned all over. Add the chopped tomatoes, chilies, reserved tomato juice, ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and salt.
• Cook on medium flame until all the water is evaporated and the chutney gets a nice thick consistency.

Check out the complete Nepali Thali here.

Nepal -- Simple Vegetarian Thali (Recipes)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: N for Nepal

Dish: Vegetarian Thali (Recipes)

We are exactly half way through the marathon, 13 done -- 13 more to go. Our next stop is Nepal and this was the very first country that I cooked for. I knew it was going to be Nepal for N from the very beginning. Ever since I saw Sandhya's Nepali dishes for one of the previous BMs, I wanted to try them and this was the best opportunity I got. Also when I was planning the dishes, we were freshly done with the Indian states mega BM and all the thalis that were posted really inspired me to plan a thali for Nepal too.
The Nepalese are mostly immigrants from India, Tibet, North Burma and the Chinese province of Yunnan via Assam. So the culture and the cuisine is mostly influenced by all these countries. Much of Nepalese dishes are made in India too, especially in the North eastern Indian states.

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Carrot-Onion Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: BM Pair (Sujatha Ram)
Dish: Carrot-Onion Chutney

For the last week of marathon, we are cooking from our fellow marathoner. I got paired with Sujatha Ram who blogs at Indian Veg Kitchen. Sujatha is a relatively new blogger, but has quite a few authentic and delicious vegetarian dishes. I have many of her traditional desserts bookmarked and wanted to make at least one for this week, but with my husband travelling, I didn't want to eat the calories all by myself.

So for the first day, I made this Carrot chutney based on Sujatha's carrot-small onion chutney. I wanted to make something different to go along with the masala idlis and this carrot chutney sounded perfect to me. Also my son doesn't eat carrot and I wanted him to try this. He didn't know that it had carrot and ate it without complaint. Even my husband and sister didn't know that it was carrot chutney and liked it a lot.

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A Vegetarian Indian Thali

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Bookmarked recipes from BM# 39
Dish: Indian Thali

So for the last day of the marathon, I created a thali with some of the recipes that I bookmarked from last month's mega marathon. Indian thali usually consists of a Bread, Rice dish, a dry curry, a gravy curry, chutney and something sweet to end the meal. 

Most of the dishes in this thali are from the North Eastern states of India. To be honest, I had no idea about the eating habits or the popular dishes from any of the North Eastern states. Thanks to the research that all of the marathoners have done last month, I know a lot more about these cuisines now. I also wanted to make this black rice pudding from Nagaland for dessert, but I made this thali for myself and I wasn't motivated enough to make a dessert and also I was tooooo full after eating this meal. buuurp!!

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Tomato Chutney from Tripura & Green Chili Chutney from Mizoram

Mosdeng Serma from Tripura: This was one of the simplest tomato chutney recipes I have ever made, with very few ingredients; tomatoes, onions, garlic and chilies. We can taste all of the ingredients in the chutney which are otherwise weighed down by tamarind and the tempering that are usually added in South Indian style chutneys. This chutney can be eaten with rice, roti or even as a sandwich spread.

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Mango Pachadi (South Indian style Sweet Mango Chutney)

Blogging Marathon# 40: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Mango Mania
Dish: Mango Pachadi

As I was thinking for recipes to make for this weeks theme, I saw this sweet mango pachadi as part of Tamil Nadu thali on both Sandhya's & Jayanthi's blogs. It sounded sweet, tangy and spicy. I had some chopped mangoes in the freezer and I went ahead and made this chutney. It tasted great with white rice, curd rice and even roti.

The jaggery I used was a little dark that made the chutney a little darkish instead of the golden color in Sandhya's and Jayanthis blogs. Taste was however right on point.

Recipe from Sandhya's recipe:

Ingredients:

Mango - 1 large, peeled, deseeded and diced

Jaggery (or brown sugar) - ½cup, grated (adjust as per taste)
Sugar - 2tbsp

Green Chili - 1 small, finely chopped
Mustard seeds - ½tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Cook mango pieces with some water until cooked through and tender.
• Add jaggery and sugar, mix well and bring the mixture to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the mixture thickens, about 4~5 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Heat 1tsp oil in a small saucepan, add the mustard seeds and green chilies. Once the seeds start to splutter, add the oil to the mango mixture and mix well. Enjoy!!

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked up today for BM# 40.

Also linking to Fabulous Feast# 14, being hosted this week by Valli & Prachi.

Sweet Chutney for Chaats (Date-Tamarind Chutney)

This sweet and tangy chutney is a must with any chaat. Balance is the key for this chutney, so adjust the quantities according to your personal taste preference.

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Green Chutney for Chaats (Cilantro-Mint Chutney)

Green Chutney is the quintessential ingredient for all the chaats. It is very simple to make with few ingredients but balance is the name of the game when making this dish. A little too much of any ingredient will change the taste. So adjust the ingredients as per your personal preference.

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Rava Dosa with Onion Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 34: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Instant Idlis/ Dosas
Dish: Instant Rava Dosa with Brown Rice flour

For Day 2 of BM# 34, I have instant Rava dosa. I love Rava dosa and order it once in a while when we are at an Indian restaurant. There is a fast food place here in New Jersey that serves amazing rava dosa. But  I don't usually make them at home because of all the refined flour/ rawa used. 

So today to make our beloved rava dosa (just a tiny little bit) healthier (and not feel too much guilty), I added brown rice flour in place of white flour. There is no discernible difference in either the taste or the texture of the dosas, so I'm happy to report that rava dosas will be made with brown rice flour here on out in my house.

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Mango Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Favorite Celebrity Chef Recipes
Dish: Mango Chutney
We are starting 2nd week of blogging marathon# 33 today and my theme for this week is 'Favorite Celebrity Chef Recipes'. For the first day, I have Alton Brown's Mango chutney that I actually made couple of months ago in the middle of summer. Saved it in the drafts and totally forgot about it.
Alton Brown is one of my favorite chef / cook on Food Network. I love to watch Good Eats show where he explains the science of cooking in a way that is easily understandable to everyone. He's very knowledgeable and very funny.
My husband and I love mangoes (husband LOVES them way more than me) and we make sure to buy ripe mangoes when in season. We bought a pack of 6 from Costco and the first one we tasted was so sour that both was us were very disappointed. Since it was almost impossible to eat them raw I wanted to turn them into a yummy chutney. I had bookmarked this recipe from Alton Brown quite sometime back and after a quick trip to the grocery store made this spicy-sweet mango chutney.

I bought mango chutney for this recipe and a small jar costs a fortune. I've used that chutney in salads, sandwiches, also great with naans and even quesadillas. So instead of buying a small jar, I now have 2 jars full of my home made mango chutney.

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Onion Pachadi/ Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter O
Theme: A-Z Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: O for Onion Pachadi (Chutney)/ Ullipaya Pachadi

Letter O literally threw a curve ball at me. I couldn't think of a single ingredient or dish that starts with O. I had Ooragaya (pickle) written down in my list, but had no intentions of making any because I had so many pickles that had to be used up and I didn't want to make anything new.

Finally after contemplating on what to make, I ended with Onion Pachadi/ Ullipaya Pachadi (chutney) from the cookbook 'Cooking with Pedatha'. This is the first letter in the series that I had to use an English word :-(

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Nuvvulu-Mamidikaya Pachadi (Sesame-Green Mango Chutney)

Blogging Marathon# 32: Letter N
Theme: A-Z Dishes from Andhra Pradesh
Dish: Nuvvulu-Mamidikaya Pachadi (Sesame-Green Mango Chutney)

Letter N stands for veggies like Nuvvulu (sesame seeds), Nimmakaya (lemon), Nethi Beerakaya (fuzzy gourd) etc. N also stands for Neyyi or ghee which when added on hot dal and steamed rice makes it taste out of this world. 

For today, I made Nuvvulu-Mamidikaya pachadi (sesame-green mango chutney). Recipe is from my dear neighbor from India. I was raking my mom's brain for dishes that start with 'N' and then she gave me this recipe that my neighbor makes back home. This is a very simple, almost no-cook except for the sauteed tempering. It tastes great with rice, upma, idli, dosa or just about anything that needs a little something-something to dip.

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