A spicy gingery chutney from Kerala that can be bottled and refrigerated.
Makes: About 2 cups ie. 500 millilitres of chutney
Ingredients:
- Ginger – 500 grams, sliced thin (use tender ginger if possible)
- Green chillies – 8 cut into rounds.
- Tamarind – ¼ cup packed (Soak this in 1 cup of water)
- Jaggery powder/raw sugar – 1½ teaspoons
- Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon
- Chilli powder – ½ teaspoon
- Oil – to deep fry the ginger and chillies
- Seasoning: Mustard – 1 teaspoon, Curry leaf sprigs – 3, Whole dry red chillies – 2
- Salt to taste
Method:
- Heat a kadai/wok and deep fry the sliced ginger in batches until golden brown, as shown below (careful not to burn it).
- Set the ginger aside to cool completely. After cooling, grind it to a very fine powder (without any water). Transfer the powder to a large bowl.
- In the same oil deep fry the green chillies taking care not to brown them. They must remain a pale green. Add the fried chillies to the powdered ginger along with tamarind water, jaggery, chilli powder and turmeric powder.
- Remove all but 2 tablespoons of oil from the kadai.
- With the kadai on medium flame, add in the seasoning ie. mustard, dry red chillies, curry leaf sprigs. Fry for a while until fragrant.
- Next add the ginger, green chilli etc from the bowl, to the seasoning in the kadai and bring to the boil. Season with salt and taste the chutney. This is a good time to add more tamarind pulp or water if required.
- Cool and bottle. Refrigerate to store.
- Goes well with a bland curd based curry and rice, idli, dosa.
Note:
- If you need to increase or decrease the spice level, do so by altering the green chilli quantity.
