Coconut Chutney
Soft white chutney ground with roasted gram and green chilli, with a coconut oil tadka of popped mustard and curry leaves sitting on top until you stir it in.
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 1 cup (100 g) fresh grated coconut, tightly packed
- 3 tbsp roasted gram (pottukadalai or dalia)
- 2 green chillies, roughly chopped
- ½ inch ginger, peeled
- 1 small piece tamarind, about the size of a pea
- ¾ tsp salt, or to taste
- ½ cup cold water, for grinding, plus more as needed
- 1 tbsp Cold Pressed Coconut Oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dal
- 1 dried red chilli, broken
- 1 sprig curry leaves (10 to 12 leaves)
- 1 pinch hing (asafoetida), optional
Quantities are scaled up. Taste as you go and adjust the salt and spice.
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A tiffin room at half past seven, and the idlis land on the plate with a small mound of white chutney beside them and a bowl of sambar. The chutney has the tadka still sitting on its surface, mustard seeds and a broken red chilli and two curry leaves, none of it mixed in yet. You stir it through with your finger and the smell comes up. Fifteen minutes, five ingredients, and it is the difference between a decent breakfast and one worth getting up for.
The tadka is what turns ground coconut into chutney, and wooden cold pressed coconut oil is the right oil for it. Ours is pressed from copra in a slow wooden ghaani, so it keeps that sweet coconut smell. Heated in a small pan it pops the mustard seeds properly and takes the urad dal to gold in half a minute, and when it goes over the chutney it spreads across the surface and perfumes the whole bowl.
The one thing that decides the texture is how you grind. Short bursts of ten seconds, cold water, and a pause between each so the jar stays cool. Run the mixer without stopping and the coconut heats up, its own oil separates out, and the chutney turns grainy with a faint bitterness you cannot fix.
How to make it
- Put the coconut, roasted gram, green chillies, ginger, tamarind and salt into a small mixer jar.
- Add ¼ cup cold water. Grind in short bursts of 10 seconds, stopping to scrape the sides down. Give the jar a few seconds of rest between bursts so it stays cool.
- Add the rest of the water a little at a time and grind till the chutney is soft and smooth with just a slight grain. For idli keep it loose and pourable, for dosa keep it a little thicker.
- Taste it. Add salt or another green chilli if it needs it, and a touch more tamarind if it tastes flat. Pour it into a serving bowl.
- Heat the coconut oil in a small tadka pan on medium. Add the mustard seeds and wait till they pop properly. Do not rush this, unpopped mustard tastes bitter.
- Add the urad dal and fry 20 to 30 seconds till it turns light golden. Add the red chilli, curry leaves and hing. They will crackle at once.
- Pour the hot tadka straight over the chutney. Do not stir it in immediately. Take the bowl to the table with the tadka sitting on top, then mix as you serve.
Tips
- Storage: coconut chutney is best within a few hours. It keeps 1 day in the fridge in a closed box, no more. It sours quickly at room temperature, especially in summer.
- The fix for the commonest mistake: if the chutney tastes slightly bitter and looks oily, the mixer heated the coconut. Use chilled water and grind in short bursts. There is no way to rescue a bitter batch, so get this right at the start.
- Roasted gram is what gives the body. If you do not have it, use 2 tbsp fried cashews or 2 tbsp roasted peanuts instead, or 1 tbsp fried chana dal.
- Frozen grated coconut works well, just thaw it fully first. Desiccated coconut does not, it stays dry and chewy however much water you add.
- For the hotel-style green version, grind in a small handful of coriander leaves and a few mint leaves along with the coconut.
