SPICY GREEN CHUTNEY

This recipe has gone international! I am not kidding when I say that. It is not as if world renowned hotels and chefs use it, but more in terms of talking about it whenever the topic of childhood memories comes up.

This recipe was actually taught to me by my mother. When I was younger, my brother and I used to love raw mangoes and cucumbers smothered with the spicy green chutney sold by vendors in carts around the city. Mom replicated it with a touch of her own. There were times she used 40 (yes 40!!) green chillies and it was enough to make one go through the roof! But nothing stopped us from liberally spreading it on tomatoes, cucumbers and mangoes and relishing every bit of it.

I introduced it to my friends and neighbors (some who were children that time). To say that they loved it is an understatement. Now they are all grown up married with kids of their own and settled abroad. Yet on their rare visits to India and my neighborhood, the first thing that they say when we meet up is how delicious mom’s green chutney was and how they still drool when they mention it to their friends abroad when speaking about childhood.

Such is magic of the spicy green chutney which can be used to make chaat, bhel, spread it on bread to make sandwich, dip bajjis into it or eat it like we did – on raw mangoes and cucumbers and lemon squeezed over it.

Ingredients:

1 small bunch of coriander leaves – Washed and chopped

1 small bunch pudina/mint leaves – Washed and chopped

Marble sized tamarind (do not soak this)

5-6 cloves of peeled garlic cloves

1 or 2 medium sized onion cubed

1 inch piece of ginger peeled and chopped

Green chillies – 8 to 10 or depends on how spicy you want it. For the picture above I added 30 of the spicy variety.

Salt to taste

Method:

Combine all the ingredients in a mixer with very little water and grind to a smooth paste. If water is less then add it bit by bit. Chutney should not be too watery.

For salt: Do a taste test after grinding and before transferring it to a bowl/jar, then add some more per taste if you feel it is not enough and grind again.

Preferably store the chutney in a glass jar. It’ll stay fresh for up to a week.