Coconut Coriander Chutney

I am so excited about this post, because of all the foods I tasted abroad, this is the one that brings back some of the warmest memories. It is a true comfort food in taste and thought.

Chutney definitely has a presence in the US - I've seen it in Indian restaurants as well as in other restaurants that just offer it as a kind of dip. Coconut coriander would probably come off as more exotic or innovate though in the US, while in India, this was the staple kind of chutney. "Plain chutney" basically implied that it was made with coconut and coriander. I ate this for breakfast often with idly, and sometimes if we had leftover I would have it at dinner too. I could expect to see it at every hotel I stayed at in India, as well as at any wedding or group festivity. Everyone eats this stuff, and I totally understand why.

So after learning from the expert (my amma), I took her recipe back to my kitchen in New Jersey and tried to recreate the chutney, I think successfully.

Ingredients:

• one whole coconut, shredded
• whole coriander leaves (lots of them, leave stem on)
• pinch of rock salt (or some variety that is more of a crystal than a powder - I used sea salt)
• 2 small pieces of tamarind (not paste) (I didn't use this in my re-creation)
• 1 green chile, sliced into 3 pieces
• 2 small chunks of fresh ginger
• sprinkle of compounded asafoetida powder*
• water as needed (approx. 1/2 cup)
• 1T olive oil
• 2T black mustard seeds
• 1T yellow dal

1) Crack open the coconut. I read extensively online about how to do this, but none of the methods (back of a knife, hammer) seemed to work for me. I ended up taking it out to my front lawn and throwing it on the sidewalk, which did the trick even though I lost the fresh coconut water inside, which I was looking forward to drinking. I'll try the hammer technique again next time.

2) Shred the coconut. My host parents in India used the shredder you can see in the picture below, and the one after that is my host dad hard at work scraping away at the inside of the coconut. In my world, I used a watermelon scooper and a knife. When you think you've shredded about as much as you can, throw it in the blender.

3) Add the other ingredients to the blender, and blend it all together, stopping to add water as needed.

Look at the fresh green chiles and ginger from my host mom's kitchen...

4) Ok, last step has to be done in a skillet. Heat the olive oil on medium heat, and toss in the black mustard seeds and dal. Let them cook for about 2 minutes, until they get a little toasty and fragrant. Pour the chutney from the blender into a bowl, and stir in the black mustard seeds and dal.

I understand that these are the two ingredients least likely to already be in an American kitchen, but you cannot forgo these when making the recipe. They are the secret ingredient. The mustard seeds add this little crunch, and true Indian chutney is just not the same without it.

For the record, Whole Foods sells whole coconuts. Trader Joe's failed me this time around.

See if you can guess which pictures are from India and which are from the US!

One last anecdote: My host parents from India were in Boston for two months, the first of which overlapped with the end of my trip abroad. They went back this past weekend and I didn't get to see them. I had gotten in contact with them and tentatively planned to go up last Tuesday, but my plans fell through and I was pretty upset that they were going to fly back across the world without getting to see them for a hug and a meal. I know that if I had gone up to Boston, my host mom would have made me this chutney. So instead of being in Boston on Tuesday, I stayed home and made this. Nothing could have made me feel better. I miss India a lot, but all of these flavors brought me right back to the dinner table in Chennai.

*My host mom used this ingredient (asafoetida powder) in everything and I bought some at an Indian food market in New York, but I still can't figure out exactly what it is. If anyone knows, please enlighten me!