Wednesday, July 08, 2009

1001 Coconut Chutneys

:: Coconut Chutney – A primer :: Resposted for Padmajha's Let's go nuts event.

Coconut chutney is probably the easiest chutney you can make. Add a handful of coconut, green chili and salt to a blender and blend to a paste – that’s it, fresh coconut chutney is ready in under a minute. It is also the most consumed chutney in south India. It is eaten with almost everything.

In Tamilnadu, it is called Thenga Chutney and accompanies idlis and dosas. In Andhra, it is known as Kobbari Pachadi and is eaten with rice. In Kerala, it is called Thenga Chammanthi and is served with congee (Rice porridge). In Karnataka, coconut is blended with yogurt into a Thambuli and is eaten mixed with rice. It is however Andhra, which boasts of some of the most innovative Coconut chutneys.

The basic building blocks of a coconut chutney are the base, flavouring and goodies added.

Coconut mixed with a souring agent forms the base for many varieties of chutneys. (See points 2 to 6 in column 1)
Coconut - Mango chutney
Coconut - Tamarind leaves chutney
Coconut- Yogurt chutney
Coconut- Tamarind chutney
Coconut – Lemon chutney
Apart from what is listed in the table, you can experiment by using other souring agents like Kokkum, vinegar etc.

Coconut blended with fresh green chilies or dry red chilies gives two very different looking and tasting chutneys. (See points 0, 1 in column 1)
Coconut chutney with fresh green chilies
Coconut with red chilies
For more variations, try using other chilies like jalapeno, habenaro etc.

Roasted/ fried or sun dried coconuts form the base for yet another class of dry chutneys. These dry chutneys can be stored for weeks. (See points 8, 9 in column 1) Toasted coconut chutney
Change the amount of water you add while blending them and they go from being a dry, coarse powder to a soupy liquid and everything in between.
Dry coconut chutney (Karnataka)
Semisolid Coconut Chutney (Kerala) Experiment by varying the amount of water used while blending to create chutneys with just the right consistency you like.

A wide variety of goodies like vegetables / herbs / nuts and pulses can be blended along with coconut to create scores of chutneys. (See points 1 - 8 in column 2)
Coconut Peanut chutney
Coconut – Garlic chutney
Coconut- Mint chutney
Coconut- Tomato chutney
Coconut - Carrot chutney

Coconut - Ginger chutney
Coconut-Roasted gram chutney
Experiment by blending your favourite goodies with coconut.

Once you get comfortable with these basic building blocks, you’ll not go wrong in dreaming up your own chutneys. You might even blend never-before-made chutneys !

And that is my third submission for AFAM - coconut

1 comment:

Ramya's Mane Adige said...

Hey, thanx for linking back to my blog. But I have a correction to make here.... Chutneys are NOT called thambuli in karnataka. thambuli is a side dish which is similar to chutney, thats all. Chutneys are called chutney and we too have variations in them like coconut chutney, red chili chutney, veggie chutney and many more....
Thanx!

Food Consultancy / Licensing / Crash Courses

Contact siramki@gmail.com for complete Food consultancy from concept to completion.

Customised one page cookbooks now available for pressure cooker / microwave / mixie / masala & other cooking product manufacturers. Replace bulky recipe books with easy to refer One page cookbooks and watch your sales soar !

Twecipies

Blog Archive

Cooking is fun - Duplication is a pain !

"It is extraordinary to me that the idea of creating thousands of recipes by mixing building blocks takes immediately to people or it doesn’t take at all. .... If it doesn’t grab a person right away, ... you can talk to him for years and show him demos, and it doesn’t make any difference. They just don’t seem able to grasp the concept, simple as it is". ( Thanks Warren Buffett !)

"What's angering about instructions in many cookbooks is that they imply there's only one way to cook a dish - their way. And that presumption wipes out all the creativity." Cook dishes your way - Download  1001 South Indian curries now and learn to cook, not to duplicate ! ( Thanks Robert Pirsig !)

"Recipe purity is no different from racial purity or linguistic purity. It just does not exist. Cuisines are alive and change all the time. What is traditional today was esoteric just a few decades back. So being a 'foodist' is as bad as being a racist !

About Me

My photo
Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
Okay, let me start from the very beginning. 1500 crore years ago, with a Big Bang, the Universe is born. It expands dramatically. Hydrogen forms, contracts under gravity and lights up, forming stars. Some stars explode, dusting space with the building blocks of life. These condense into planets, one of which is Earth. Over time, self replicating molecules appear, multiply and become more complex. They create elaborate survival machines (cells, plants, animals). A variety of lifeforms evolve. Soon, humans arise, discover fire, invent language, agriculture and religion. Civilisations rise and fall. Alexander marches into India. Moguls establish an empire. Britain follows. Independence. Partition. Bloodshed. The license raj is in full sway. I'm born. India struggles to find its place. Liberalisation. The Internet arrives! I move from Tirupur to Chennai. Start a company. Expand into Malaysia, Singapore and the Middle East. Poof! Dot com bust. Funding dries up. Struggle. Retire. Discover the joy of cooking, giving, friendships and the pleasures of a simple life. Life seems less complicated. Pizza Republic, Pita Bite and Bhojan Express bloom !

Looking for Treatment?