Chammanthi Cheatsheet ( Kerala Chutney )

10 dip families from across the world

10 Simple Dips / Spreads
This cookbook lists 10 simple dips/ spreads eaten across the world. Siramki@Gmail.com
1.: Mustard dips ( America / Europe) Take half a handful of white mustard seeds. Add two pinches of salt and a pinch of turmeric. Blend to a powder. Mix in water to a thick paste. Mix in the juice of a lemon. Let sit for 2-3 days (or more, if it is still bitter) before using.	Dip- A Primer A dip / spread (the thicker version of a dip) is used across the world to accompany breads / finger foods. The variations are infinite but the principle is simple – blend a variety of ingredients listed below to a thin or thick paste, mix in flavouring, additives and your dip / spread is ready. Dip Families : The dips across the world can be grouped into several families depending on the major ingredient, as listed below : Seeds: Mustard paste (Europe, America) & sesame paste ( Middle east) form the basis for a huge variety of dips. Nuts: Roasted nuts are blended to a paste ( eg. peanut butter) or blended with chilies and salt into a spicy dip like the walnut based middle eastern Muhammara. Coconut : Hugely popular in South India, coconut is blended with chilies and salt into innumerable chutneys Oil based Emulsions: French cuisine discovered that oil and acid can be blended together into a creamy sauce using an emulsifier (usually egg yolks). This led to the creation of a variety of Mayonnaise and Vinaigrettes. Lentils (boiled / roasted) and blended to a paste form the basis for another family of dips, the best known among them being Hummus, made from chickpea puree. Herbs can be blended into fresh tasting dips, as in Pestos. Yogurt forms the base for many dips across the world, Indian Raita being the most popular. Strained yogurt or yogurt cheese is a dip by itself, or can be mixed with other ingredients to become the Greek Tzatziki or the Indian Shrikhand. Tomatoes chopped / crushed / blended become the base for Mexican salsas. Cooked tomatoes form the basis for Ketchup, Pizza sauce and Pasta sauces. Sauces serve as dips across cuisines, soy sauce being the most widely used. It also forms the base for a large variety of Chinese dips. Oil including butter and ghee ( clarified butter) can serve as a dip by itself - and also carry a range of flavouring and additives to enhance their taste. Fruit / Vegetable puree (raw or cooked) can be turned into delicious dips like the Indian chutneys, Mexican guacamole ( using raw vegetables/ fruits) or Middle eastern Baba ghanoush (which used grilled eggplant). Sour cream / soft cheeses can be served as a dip on their own or mixed with other ingredients. Melted cheese ( fondue) is also a popular dip. Melted chocolate or sweet wine form the basis for a separate category of dessert dips. A mix of these bases form new category of dips. Across the world, almost all combination of these bases are mixed together into delicious dips. Mix in a variety of flavouring agents like garlic / ginger / spice powders and new dips emerge. Additives like chopped scallions / shallots / lemon juice, chilies etc can be mixed in to mix up more variants. All these can be used as a dip, their thicker versions can be used as a spread and most dips can even double as salad dressing.
2.: Nut dips ( America/ Europe) Take half a handful of roasted peanuts / cashew nuts/ walnuts/ almonds. Blend to a powder. Blend in enough oil to get a thick paste.
3.: Coconut Dips ( South India) Take a handful of chopped coconut. Add a chopped green chili, two pinches of salt and blend to a thick paste.
4.: Egg- Oil dips ( French Mayonnaise) Crack an egg in a blender. Add two pinches of salt. Blend for 5 seconds. With the blender running, add your favourite oil in a very thin stream (preferably drop by drop at the beginning). Keep blending and adding oil till you have a thick, creamy sauce in your blender. (One egg would need roughly around 200 ml oil)
5.: Vinegar Dips ( French Vinaigrette) To a blender add two spoons of lemon juice / your favourite vinegar and six spoons of your favourite oil. Add two pinches of salt, pepper and blend for 5-10 seconds till the oil and vinegar / lemon juice are mixed up. This will separate on storage. So mix / shake / blend before using.
6.: Sesame Dips ( Middle Eastern Tahini) Take half a handful of toasted white sesame seeds and a pinch of salt. Blend for 5 seconds. With the blender running, add an oil in a very thin stream till you have a thick, creamy sauce in your blender.
7.: Herb Dips ( Italian Pesto) In a blender/ mortar, add a handful of chopped edible herbs ( rocket, sage/ spinach/ cilantro etc). Add a handful of young basil leaves, a spoon of pine nuts, two pinches of grated parmesan cheese and a garlic clove. Add two pinches of salt and black pepper (or to taste). Blend / pound everything together. Mix in a spoon of olive oil (or use your favourite oil).
8.: Yogurt Dips (Indian Raita) Take a cup of yogurt. Mix in two pinches of salt, cumin powder. Mix in a handful of chopped / grated salad vegetables ( onion / cucumber / daikon / carrot etc).
9.: Tomato dips (Mexican Salsa) Take a handful of finely chopped tomatoes., Add a chopped garlic clove, the juice of half a lemon, half a handful of chopped onion, a chopped green chili and two pinches of salt. Serve straight, or coarsely blend to a chunky paste.
10.: Soy Dips ( Chinese) Take a handful of finely chopped spring onions. Mix in two pinches of chili powder, 3 spoons of soy sauce and a spoon of vinegar. Mix to a thick paste.

Simple Pounded Chutneys

Travel cooking / cooking with basic equipment While planning on a All India trip on my motorbike, I started collecting /developing recipes which can be prepared on the road / hotel room / train / while camping or anywhere with the most basic equipment. A simple pestle and mortar, a knife and a grater is all you need to prepare a variety of chutneys listed here. These make ideal recipes for those with no kitchen / students living in hostels. 5 minutes of pounding and patience is all you need to cook these.   Pounded chutneys taste much better than the ones blended in a blender. This is because a high speed blender heats up and partially cooks the food. The difference in taste is dramatic in coconut chutneys.   A pestle and mortar is also a great way to grind up very small quantities of spices.   The following recipes are listed in this cookbook : 1.: Mint / Cilantro / Tamarind leaves chutney. 2.: Mango chutney. 3.: Pottukadalai Chutney 4.: Groundnut / Sesame / Cashew chutney. 5.: Coconut chutney. 6.: Radish Chutney 7.: Shallots /Onion / Garlic chutney 8.: Baby Tamarind pod chutney 9.: Grilled vegetable bharta

1001 Fresh Indian Chutneys

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Anything edible blended to a paste with chilies, lemon juice / tamarind would taste good seems to be the logic behind chutneys. A variety of bases (column 1) are blended with a variety of souring agents (column 3) and flavoured by various spices (column2) to create an array of chutneys. 

It is probably one of the easiest dips to make – just throw everything in a blender and blend to a paste – how much simpler can it get ? 

South India is the chutney capital, with a mind boggling array of chutneys. Thuvaiyal, Masiyal, Thayir Pachadi – all belong to the chutney family. Thuvaiyals are made by blending raw / boiled vegetables / roasted pulses with red chili and tamarind. Masiyals / Kotsu are cooked chutneys made by blending boiled vegetables with green chilies and lemon juice. Thayir Pachadis are made by mixing raw / boiled vegetables with seasoned yogurt.

The equivalents of Indian chutneys exist in many cuisines. Many foreign ‘chutneys’ omit the chilies and use vinegar / lemon as a souring agent. Toasted sesame seeds blended with olive oil, lemon and salt give the famous Tahini or Sesame chutney.  Mustard when ground to a paste with turmeric, salt and vinegar / wine becomes the delicious mustard dip, so popular in the west. We'd probably call it mustard chutney. If Avacados had been known in India, we'd certainly have had Avacado chutney by pureeing its flesh with salt, chili and lime juice. But now, we only know it as Guacamole. Walnut chutney or Muhammara is made by blending walnuts, chili, garlic, lemon juice, salt and olive oil.

Chutneys can be sweet or sour, spicy or mild, thin or thick, chunky or smooth, cooked or uncooked. They can be made with fruits, salad vegetables, cooked vegetables, roast lentils, nuts or seeds.  Mango, apple, pear, tamarind, onions, tomato, raisins, groundnut, chana dal, coconut, garlic, ginger, mint, cilantro, chilies - all are used across the country as a chutney base. This base is usually blended with a souring agent (lemon / tamarind), chilies (fresh green / dry red) and salt into a thick paste.  Chutneys traveled with the British to their colonies and to Britain, where they have become increasingly popular. The fresh chutney, with its short shelf life was not ideal for mass production. Hence most supermarket chutneys are now a kind of jam / pickle, being cooked with sugar & vinegar. Fruit chutneys (Mangos, apples, onions, raisins) are simmered with vinegar, sugar, spices and bottled, giving rise to a 'chutney' which is almost never eaten in India, but fill the supermarket shelves abroad. These spicy fruit jams masquerading as chutneys are also popular in the Caribbean, South Africa and in US. Taste a freshly blended coconut chutney / cilantro chutney and you'll see how little effort is needed to create this delicious dip and how much more flavourful they are compared to the packed versions.

10 fresh Street food Chutneys

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This cookbook lists 10 street food chutneys listed below :

1.:   Khatta Meeta chutney  ( Sweet & Sour Chutney)

2.:   Sweet chutney

3.:   Red chutney

4.:   Green chutney 

5.:   White chutney 

6.:   Brown chutney

7.:   Mint chutney 

8.:.  Chili chutney 

9.:   Onion - Tomato chutney  

10.: Tamarind chutney  

1001 Basic North Indian Curries

The eight states of North India - Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, & its daughter Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and its daughter Chhattisgarh, cook up a bewildering array of curries. But look beyond the facade and you can see the basic building blocks are all alike. Almost all North Indian curries share the following characteristics.

1. They are built from milk, yogurt, onion - tomato, spinach or lentils.
2. They are mostly flavoured by fried cumin, ginger-garlic and garam masala.
3. They are generally eaten with flatbreads like Chapati.

The key point to remember is that almost all North Indian curries are built on milk, yogurt, onion-tomato, spinach or lentils. You’ll repeatedly encounter various combinations of these basic building blocks in all North Indian curries.

What makes the curry of one state taste different from another is the differing emphasis on the basic blocks. For example, Kashmiris use yogurt in almost all their curries. Parts of Madhya Pradesh like Gwalior and Indore use milk and cream extensively.

Curries across regions use different fats for cooking. Homemade ghee is preferred in Haryana and Mustard oil in Kashmir. Refined vegetable oils are now used across regions.

Each region has it own speciality vegetables. Lotus stalk and karam sag ( a type of spinach) are used in Kashmir curries, turnips in Himachal Pradesh, tinda and ghia ( a sweet gourd) in Haryana curries.

These regional variations makes the curries of these eight northern states look and taste very different. But at their core, they are built from the same five building blocks.

All eight states use almost similar spices for flavouring. However, different regions use different combinations of these basic spices.

Cumin seeds fried in oil is probably the most common flavouring used in all North Indian curries. Almost all recipes start with “Heat oil, add a pinch of cumin”.

The next most common are spices like coriander seeds, cumin, turmeric. Garam masala (a powdered mix of various spices) is the most commonly used readymade spice mix. Asafetida is not used in North Indian cuisine except in Kashmir and in the hills of Uttaranchal. Tamarind is not used as a souring agent. Instead yogurt / tomato / dry mango powder is preferred. Rock salt / Kala namak is used in some curries, which for the uninitiated can cause a cuisine shock with its sulphurous odour.

Food does not respect man made boundaries. This is why there is no clear-cut geographical division between curries of different states. As you move across the land, you’ll see the curries morph and change, reflecting local availability and local beliefs. And this is why it is a fallacy to talk about ‘pure’ or ‘traditional’ recipes. Recipes keep changing all the time and even the most traditional of recipes is cooked differently across regions. Only the basic building blocks remain relatively unchanged over time.

The chief goal of this cookbook is to give you a bird’s eye view of the general principles used to cook up a vast array of North Indian curries. Once you get the big picture, you’ll rarely go wrong in cooking up dozens of local variations. The following are the major curry familes cooked across North India :

Raw yogurt curries (Raita)
Mix anything edible with yogurt, add a pinch of salt and your instant raita is ready. A variety of salad vegetables like onions, tomatoes, cucumber are normally used for raitas. Boiled vegetables like potatoes are also used. Cooked stuff like roast and crushed papad, boondi ( fried gram flour paste) can also be used.
Roopa's Beetroot Raita
Prema's Capsicum Raita
Ruchii's Potato Raita

Blended curries (Chutney)
Blend anything edible with a spoon of lime juice and a chili and you have your instant chutney. A variety of salad vegetables / herbs are normally blended with chilies and lime juice to make spicy chutneys.
Priya's Cilantro Chutney
Vanaja's Mint Chutney
Prav's Tamarind - Date Chutney ( Tamarind is not commonly used in North Indian cuisine, but for the chutneys)
Anita's Mint and Walnut Chutney

Lentil curries (Dal)
Boil and mash lentils , mix in salt , chili powder and flavourings and your basic dal is ready. The humble dal made chiefly from tuvar dal, masoor dal, mung dal and urad dal is a cornerstone of North Indian cuisine. A variety of dried pulses ( mainly chickpeas and Red kidney beans) are also used to cook up numerous curries. Unlike lentils, these larger pulses need to be soaked overnight, drained and cooked for 4 whistles in a pressure cooker before they can be used.

Cauliflower Dal
Mandia's Toor Dal Fry
Meena's Chana Dal Tadka

Spinach curries (Saag)
Boil and mash up spinach, mix in salt and chili powder and you have your basic saag ( spinach puree). A variety of locally available greens are used for creating an array of spinach curries.
Anita's Sarson ka Saag
Mike's Saag
Dhivya's Sarson ka saag
Happy Herbivore's Saag and Red lentils
Freida's Saag Paneer

Dry Vegetable curries (Sukhi subji)
Chop up and boil a vegetable, add salt and chili powder, add a bit of flavouring and your basic dry curry is ready. A large variety of vegetables are cooked up into these dry curries.
Richa's Cauliflower dry curry
Vysh's Green gram dry curry

Yogurt - gram flour Curry ( Kadi)
Mix yogurt and gram flour together, add turmeric powder and some salt, cook for a few minutes and your basic kadi is ready. A variety of vegetables and other goodies are gently simmered in the kadi.
Punjabi Kadi

Dairy based mild, rich curries (Korma)
Mix nut paste with Milk / cream / yogurt , add spices and vegetables, cook for a few minutes and basic kurma is ready. (South Indian kurumas use coconut paste as a base, whereas the North Indian kormas use nut paste).
Navratan Korma ( Not exactly Navratan, but a Korma nevertheless)
Sheela's Vegetable Korma

Model Recipes
If you have a North indian curry recipe and would like to share it, mail me the link ( siramki at gmail) or use the comment form. Thanks !

1001 Thogayal : South Indian Blended Curries

Blended curries : Thuvaiyal / Thogayal / Pachadi / Chutney
A variety of blended curries are eaten all over the South. All these curries can be made in a jiffy. Most require no cooking at all. Just add everything and blend to a paste – and your curry is ready. They do not need any garnish too, though normally a couple of pinches of mustard seeds and curry leaves are fried in a spoon of oil and added. They can be eaten with rice and a variety of Indian breads. They can also be used as dips or spreads.

The sourness of the curry comes usually from Tamarind paste, or lemon. The curry is spiced up by red / green chilies. A variety of herbs / vegetables / pulses/ nuts / leaves are blended to a paste with a souring agent and chilies to make these curries.

Blended curries from sour fruits like gooseberry/ mango do not need an extra souring agent. Salad vegetables like onions, radish, tomato, can be used raw. Vegetables like eggplant, which cannot be eaten raw are cooked and used.

Thuvaiyal, Masiyal, Chutney, and Thayir Pachadi – all belong to the blended curry family. Their names change depending on the souring agent used. Thuvaiyals are made by blending raw / boiled vegetables / roasted pulses with red chili and tamarind. Masiyals / Kotsu are made by blending boiled vegetables with green chilies and lemon juice. Chutneys are made by blending raw vegetables / herbs usually with coconut and green chilies. Normally no souring agents are used for Chutneys. Thayir Pachadis are made by mixing raw / boiled vegetables with seasoned yogurt.

International Thogayals / Pachadis

The equivalents of our Thogayals, called dips, exist in many cuisines. Replace chilies with pepper , add olive oil, garlic and lemon juice to a thogayal and you get a range of 'International Thogayals' .
For example, toasted sesame seeds blended with sesame /olive oil, lemon and salt give the famous Tahini or Ellu Thogaiyal. Mix in boiled and mashed chickpeas with Tahini and you have the famous Hummus. We'd probably call it Chickpea Masiyal. ( It is interesting to note that boiled pulses are not used as a thogayal base in South India).

Instead of chickpeas, mash soaked and boiled Mochai ( fava beans) with lemon, salt, garlic, olive oil and chili and you get the Fava Bean Masiyal or Bigilla - the famous Maltese dip.

Mix in grilled and mashed eggplant and lemon juice to Tahini and you have eggplant masiyal or Baba Ghanoush, another famous Middle eastern dip. Mix in chopped tomatoes and pepper powder to Baba Ghanoush and you have the Greek dip Melitzanosalata .

Our Thayir pachadis minus the flavouring are nothing but Raitas, popular across North India. Mix in olive oil, lemon juice and grated garlic to a raita and you have the famous Greek dip Tzatziki.

Blend roasted peanuts to a paste and you have the eternal favourite Peanut butter. Add chilies and tamarind and it becomes Peanut Thogayal.

The humble mustard when ground to a paste with turmeric , salt and vinegar ( or wine / honey) becomes the delicious mustard dip, so popular in the west. We'd probably call it Kadugu Thogayal.

When you blend Tomato, onions, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, chili and salt together , we have what we would call raw tomato chutney, or Salsa cruda (raw salsa)as it is known in Mexico.

Instead of using raw veggies, stir fry the tomatoes, onion , chili and garlic . Blend it with cilantro, lime juice and salt and you have Tomato chutney or the regular Salsa, a wildly popular dip. If Avacados had been known in India, we'd certainly have had an Avacado Thogayal by pureeing its flesh with salt, pepper and lime juice. But now, we only know it as Guacamole. Another famous Middle eastern dip, Walnut Thogayal or Muhammara is made by blending walnuts, bread crumbs, chili, garlic, lemon juice, salt and olive oil . Chinese have their own pachadis built around Soy sauce, which is their chief souring agent . Soy Ginger sauce is their equivalent of our Ginger Chutney or the famous Allam pachadi. The Chinese and Japanese also add sugar to their version of our pachadis, very much like the Gujaratis do. Most Chinese or Japanese 'pachadis' have a distinct sweet and sour taste.

Thus, the concept of blending nuts / herbs / veggies / fruits, with a souring agent exists in many mature cuisines. Just keep an eye open for them and you'll see them all around you !

Model Recipes

Nilava Allam Pachadi
Latha's Fenugreek leaves Thogayal
Rak's Gongura Thuvaiyal
Srivalli's Goosebery Chutney
Laavanya's Mung Dal Thogayal
Ammani's Onion Thuvaiyal