Spicy Coconut Chutney

Coconut chutney or chutni is a simple dish made with coconut, chillies and tempered to perfection and served along side Indian pancakes or Dosas or idlis. People love chutney, and there are so many different varities of recipes for this infamous side dish.It’s an indispensable dish especially along side dosas or idlis without which the meal/breakfast would be incomplete!This is a very simple recipe, I am sure this is not a new recipe that I am blogging, even then I just felt like blogging it because one of my good friend asked me the recipe for chutney. So I just thought whoever is a novice to cooking can always look into it and learn this authentic Konkani Hinga chutney or Asafoetida chutney. In Konkani we call asafoetida hing like that in Hindi. I remember my bapma (grandma) & mom frying the hing/asafoetida in a tsp of oil and then grind it along with coconut, chillies etc., Back then and I am sure even today hing is available in a hard form or more like a lumpy form and looked yellowish in color. When hing/asafoetida is fried it till it’s sizzling and then blended along with coconut and chillies it gave a unique flavor and taste to the chutney, since I get it in a powdered form I add it in the seasoning instead. It still works fine. If you find the hing/asafoetida in hard form you can very well try it. Also you can substitute red chillies with green chillies and they taste just great!

The recipe follows

Ingredients:

½ cups grated coconut
3 to 4 red chillies fried in a tsp of oil till crisp
¼ tsp tamarind concentrate (optional) or you can add ½ tsp of lime juice
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

3 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
5 to 6 curry leaves/kadi patta
¼ tsp asafoetida

Method:

1. In a blender jar add in the coconut, fried red chillies, tamarind/lime juice, & salt and grind it to a fine paste using water. Pour it in a bowl.

2. Heat oil in a tadka pan and add mustard seeds, when they start to sputter add curry leaves and asafoetida and fry till the curry leaves are crisp and the asafoetida is also fried well, may be 1 or 2 minutes on a medium flame.

3. Add the seasoning on the chutney and mix well and serve alongside dosas or idlis.