Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

Grilling the green peppers and onions under the broiler imparts a smokiness and savouriness to the dish that can't be achieved if it was just simply sauteed. 

This dish is delicious. Expect it to tastes like slightly charred smoky green peppers mixed with the salty savouriness of the olives and some tartness from the tomatoes.

I serve it as part of a meze or a pre-dinner dip. I could eat a lot of this with some soft flat bread, tortilla chips, grilled fish, pasta or on its own. If vegetables always cooked this tasty, I might consider becoming a vegetarian. No, impossible. I love my bacon.

There is still bite to this chunky dip as the vegetables are not overcooked and the flavours improve with keeping. It is a good idea to make this the day before a party so it frees you somewhat from the kitchen on party day itself. I like that.

ROASTED GREEN BELL PEPPERS WITH TOMATOES AND OLIVES

Prep:	10 minutes
Cook:	30 minutes grill + 20 minutes stove top
Inactive:	10 minutes for grilled vegetables to cool
Level:	Easy
Makes:	3 cups
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Up to 2 days ahead, refrigerated.

Ingredients

15.8 oz (450 g) green bell peppers
8 oz (225 g) onions with skins (about 2 medium size)
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 can of 14.5 oz (411 g) diced tomatoes
2 Tablespoons sliced green olives
1 to 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Dried spices

1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon paprika/chilli powder
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon salt

Method

Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Place this under the oven rack you will be setting your vegetables on for grilling. Any juices that might drip from the vegetables will be caught on the aluminium lined tray, saving you some washing up.

Turn on your broiler. Place the whole green bell peppers and the onions (with skins left on) directly on the oven rack. The top of your vegetables should be between 1" to 1 and 1/2" (2.5 cm to 3.8 cm) away from the heating element above. 

Depending on the heat from your broiler, it should take 5 to 10 minutes for each side of the bell peppers and onions to get charred. Rotate the vegetables and watch that they don't burn. You will be peeling off the black outer skins when they are done so do not be afraid to get them nicely charred.

Place the charred bell peppers in a vessel, cover tightly with plastic wrap and cool. Alternatively, you could seal them in a heavy duty plastic bag or a plastic container with a lid.

Leave the charred onions to cool on its own.

When the bell peppers are cool enough to handle, peel off the charred skins and remove as much seeds as you can. Save any juices from the bell peppers. Dice the bell peppers and add any juices to it. Set aside.

Do the same for the charred onions.

Heat up the olive oil on medium high heat. Fry the garlic for a minute or until it smells aromatic. Add the tomatoes and fry for 10 minutes or until most of the tomato liquid has evaporated and the oil separates. Take a look at my frying pan of tomatoes. 

Add the dried spices and the diced onions. Fry 5 to 10 minutes until the onions softens a little. Add the bell peppers stir to mix and warm through. Finally add the sliced olives. Stir. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Remove from the burner and transfer to a serving dish. Drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil.

Tips

• Put this over spaghetti or penne, sprinkle over some grated parmesan and eat. If you like it with more of a sauce, add another can of diced tomatoes together with the first can and adjust your seasonings. If the Roasted Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives are leftover from the day before (which I always look forward to), I add some tomato passata (cooked and strained tomatoes that usually comes in tall glass bottles) and simply heat through before eating.

• This dish goes well with a dish of Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt (there is a picture below of it on my meze table). Labneh has a taste and texture similar to cream cheese. A simple vegetarian meal would be a plate of Roasted Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives with a small side of Labneh lightly drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. In fact, that was what I had for lunch. It all went down too quickly in my tummy for me to take a picture.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                 

Moroccan inspired round bread loaves. They are 2 different yet similar loaves. One is baked with spelt flour and the other with stone ground whole wheat flour. Which is which?

Find out in my upcoming post for the recipe that baked these soft loaves.

To recap, this post is part of my series on Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites. With the festive season fast approaching, it is time to start thinking about some party food for those year-end parties. 

Year-end party menus are often more elaborate and require more time to prepare. Invariably there will be more dinner guests to feed. You might even find that you have to host that extra one, two or three parties. More than a little effort is probably required of you to decorate your house and dining table for the festive season. 

This is the time when I appreciate more than ever those recipes that are quick and easy but I am especially grateful for recipes that can be prepared in advance. Something that you might want to consider is to host a party where you serve a selection of meze (a selection of small dishes). A lot of the work can be done ahead. Take a look at my post on  Meze, A Selection of Wonderful Little Bites to find out more.

My recent meze party inspired my series on 'little bites' for your upcoming year-end parties. 

First row:

Zaalouk - Moroccan Roasted Eggplants and Tomatoes; Kabis - Lebanese Pickled Turnips & Beets; Moroccan inspired Radish, Bell Peppers and Mint Salad; Flash Fried Sweet Mini Bell Peppers.

Second row:

Greek inspired Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta; Hummus with Spiced Angus Beef Slices; Beef Kafta -  Lebanese inspired Meatballs.

Third row:

Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt Drizzled With Extra Virgin Olive Oil And Clover Honey; Moroccan inspired Roasted Green Bell Peppers and Tomatoes With Olives; Fresh Figs With Peppered Ricotta. 

Here are the recipes I have posted:

• Zaalouk, Roasted Eggplants and Peppers
• Flash Fried Sweet Mini Bell Peppers
• Labneh - Lebanese Drained Yogurt Drizzled With Extra Virgin Olive Oil And Clover Honey
• Greek inspired Shrimp With Tomatoes And Feta
• Kabis - Lebanese Pickled Turnips and Beets
• Fresh Figs With Peppered Ricotta
• Hummus with Spiced Angus Beef Slices
• Radish, Bell Peppers and Mint Salad
• Beef Kafta - Lebanese inspired Meatballs
• Moroccan inspired Roasted Green Bell Peppers With Tomatoes And Olives
• Moroccan inspired Wholemeal Round Loaf

Tomato Chutney, Tomato Dip

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Tomato Chutney, Tomato Dip

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

I will be serving this tomato chutney often now that I have rediscovered it. Lost in the back archives of my brain, I recalled it while typing the recipes for my two previous blog entries on chutneys/dips, Coconut Chutney and Mint Chutney. 

I could eat not just spoonfuls but bowlfuls of this.  I don't need anything with it, just give me a spoon and let me slurp away. 

If you have been following my blog, you would know that this recipe for Tomato Chutney is the last in my series for chutneys/dips to go with my interpretation of the gluten-free, savoury Indian snack, Vadai. I have an unconventional approach to making them. I make the batter with a shrimp base stock instead of the convetional water base. Vadais are soft on the inside with a slight crispy crunch on the outside. 

Curious? Click on this link, Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack to read more on it. 

Here are all three dips,  Mint Chutney, Tomato Chutney and Coconut Chutney with Vadais and tortilla chips. I serve the Vadais not so much as snacks as it is often done in Indian homes but as pre-dinner party nibbles. It is always popular with my guests.

As I mentioned in my previous blog posts, if you have no time or the desire to make Vadais, open a bag of tortilla chips or pretty much any other bag of vegetable chips to dip them in the Tomato Chutney. 

Look under 'Tips' at the bottom of this blog post to find out how else you could use this scrumptious dip. I really do like it by the spoonfuls.

TOMATO CHUTNEY, TOMATO DIP                                      

Prep:	15 minutes
Cook:	30 minutes
Inactive:	-
Level:	Intermediate
Serves:	6 as a dip
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Yes, up to 2 days.

Ingredients

For grinding

4 large tomatoes diced (4 cups)

1 and 1/3 cup diced purple onions

Use purple onions and not yellow as purple onions are more often than not the onion of choice to be used in Indian cooking.

1 teaspoons diced ginger

2 red chilli, seeds removed roughy diced

For frying

4 Tablespoon oil

1 teaspoons urud dal, also known as black gram/lentils and sometimes labelled as white gram/lentils

These can be purchased from Indian grocers. The lentils you want to buy are actually off white in colour. The black husks have been removed revealing the inner off white colour of the lentils. You will also find on the grocer's shelves, black gram lentils with husks still attached so they are black in colour. Remember to buy the off whites ones. 

Half a pinch (that's half of a 1/8 teaspoon) of asafoetida (optional)

Asafoetida is the resin derived from the herbaceous ferula family. You can buy this greyish brownish coloured powdered spice at your Indian grocer. I use this for its anti-flatulence properties. It is an ingredient used as far as I am aware, primarily in Indian cooking. Its use has not transcended borders as much as other spices associated with Indian cooking. Perhaps because it smells dangerously sulphuric. The smell might just shock you enough to send you reeling back a few steps. I keep the plastic container where it comes stored in when I buy it, in a plastic bag and then in a glass jar. That is how pungent it smells.

Add too much of it in your food and it overwhelms the dish. I am very conservative with the amount I add. I cannot accurately tell you the flavour it imparts as it is a totally different spice. All I know is if I add it to my lentil/bean dishes, my tummy feels a whole lot better. If I really have to describe the taste it imparts, I would say it is a mix of onion, fennel and garlic. 

Omit if you cannot bring yourself to buy or use it.

I do use it in my recipes for Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack and Coconut Chutney, Coconut Dip.

The ground up ingredients as listed above (tomatoes, onions, ginger, chillies)

1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons sugar

Depending on the tomatoes you use, you might have to use +/- 1 to 2 teaspoons of sugar. Adjust to suit your taste.

For tempering

To put it simply, in Indian cooking 'tempering' refers to heating up of spices in hot oil to draw out its flavours. That means tempering can be done in the initial stages of cooking a dish, after which other ingredients, for instance, onions and vegetables are added and cooking continues. 

Tempering is also done to finish off an otherwise cooked dish. Oil is heated, spices are thrown in often in separate succession, to maximise its potency. The flavoured oil and spices are strewn over the dish which can be a chutney as in my Coconut Chutney and this Tomato Chutney recipe or in other dishes such as in lentils or beans meals. 

Tempering to complete a dish adds a lot more flavour to what could be a mediocre dish. Taste the Tomato Chutney before and after you add the tempered ingredients and you will understand what I mean.

2 Tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoons black mustard seeds

These can be purchased from Indian grocery stores.

16 curry leaves

Directions

In a blender, grind up the tomatoes, onions, ginger and chillies. Grinding it up helps you to cook down the vegetables faster. Set aside.

Heat up 4 Tablespoons of oil in a pot. When oil is hot, add urud dal and shake the pan around until the urud dal turns a light golden colour. This takes a few seconds. Add the asafoetida, let it sizzle 5 seconds, add the ground up vegetables, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to medium and boil it down for 30 minutes or until it thickens and is no longer runny.

There will be a lot of bubbling, spluttering and splattering. The chutney does make a bit of a mess to the area surrounding the pot. When I see little funnels on the chutney, like those in the photograph below, I turn off the burner. Leave it on the burner.

Next thing to be done is tempering.

Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a small pot. I use my 4" pot as the deep sides and narrow diameter will protect me from the spitting oil. You be careful. When the oil is hot, add the black mustard seeds and curry leaves and shake the pot to move things around for 5 seconds. Not more. Mustard seeds burn super easily. It should smell heady. Pour this directly into the Tomato Chutney and stir to incorporate. Reheat the tomato chutney, let it simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, adjust seasoning for sugar and salt.

Remove from burner, cool and serve.

Tips

How else can you serve Tomato Chutney?

• Over a simple Mozzarella Salad. How simple?

This is what you would need. No cooking required.

1. Mozzarella ball, preferably buffalo as it is the creamiest and the softest.
2. Tomato Chutney.
3. Basil leaves, shredded. If you do not have it, leave it out.
4. Extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Slice the mozzarella ball or tear it up into smaller pieces and arrange on a serving plate. Dollop the Tomato Chutney over it. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil, pepper and salt to taste. Strewn basil over.

I like this for dinner with country bread. So simple and satisfying.

• With a sunny side up egg

Serve Tomato Chutney over fried egg and bread. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil. Pepper and salt to taste. This is even better with a side of sliced avocados! Another easy and delicious light meal.

• Topped over grilled fish

I am sure that with time, I will be able to come up with more ways to serve my Tomato Chutney. It is so versatile and I so like it! That was my dinner. Yum yum yum.

I grilled a fillet of white fish, Barramundi (sea bass) with sea salt and topped it with Tomato Chutney. The green vegetable I served it with was inspired by a gracious Sri Lankan lady who lived across me some time back. She used to share some of her dinner with me and they were always delicious. 

The vegetable is chinese broccoli (kai lan). I diced up the stems, shredded the leaves and diced up some onions. In hot oil, I crackled mustard seeds, sauteed onions, added dried Maldive fish flakes, diced green chillies and the chinese broccoli. After which, in went some tumeric powder, garam masala and 1/4 cup of fresh/frozen grated coconut and salt. So good.

Maldive fish (tuna) flakes are difficult to find. I bought my supply when I was in Sri Lanka. You could try looking for it in an Indian grocery shop but I really have not been able to find it locally. A good substitute is bonito (tuna) flakes, the Japanese equivalent. Tumeric powder and garam masala (a spice mix) can be bought easily in almost any supermarket.

Finally, the last food item on my plate is just a potato! It is soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. I microwaved a peeled whole potato until it was cooked through. Then, I heated some olive oil till it was very hot. I plopped in the whole cooked potato, seasoned it with salt and pepper, flattened it with the back of my frying slice and held it there for about 2 minutes until it was golden brown and crispy. I did the same for the other side of the potato. Eat it hot as like french fries, it will lose its crispiness when cooled. The potato complements the stronger tasting grilled fish with Tomato Chutney and Fried Chinese Broccoli with Spices.

Let me know if you come up with any other ideas to serve this Tomato Chutney! I would love to try it!

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                

What do you think of this cake? It is a shimmery beauty! It is a Mirror Jelly Cake. Perhaps I should call it a Mirror Jelly Slice as they are just over 1" (2.5cm) high. 

The bottom layer is made of crushed digestive biscuits, the middle is a marshmallow layer and the top layer is raspberry flavoured Jell-O! It does not lasts more than a day in my house. If I serve it as a dessert at a party, it lasts all of 10 minutes.

If you like biscuit based cakes, marshmallows and Jell-O, look out for my next blog post!

Mint Chutney, Mint Dip

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Mint Chutney, Mint Dip

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

This is the most refreshing tasting chutney I know. I tend to think of this more as a dip. There is no spice, no oil and no cooking involved.  It is made from fresh ingredients whizzed up in a blender. Clean tasting, slightly tangy from the lemon juice. It is a guilt free dip.

I serve my mint chutney with the Indian snack, vadai, pictured below. Click on the link for the recipe to my unconventional interpretation of this toothsome, gluten free morsel. The fresh mint chutney goes well with the savouriness of the vadai. 

If I need a quick and easy pre-dinner party snack, this is one of my favourite dips to fix because it requires hardly any fixing. 

I can prepare the minty chutney up to 6 hours ahead and refrigerate it. If I know my dinner menu is going to require me to spend more time in the kitchen, I simplify my pre-dinner snacks further. 

I do not serve vadais with the mint chutney.  Instead, when my guests arrive, I snip open a bag of tortilla chips. I can tell from the looks on their faces that everyone is more than pleased to not have to face yet another salsa, avocado or dairy based dip and they are quite enthralled by the more than pleasant mint chutney. 

If you want to indulge your guests further, prepare the coconut chutney recipe that I have.  It can be made ahead as well. The rich tasting coconut chutney taste quite the opposite to the light tasting mint chutney. It's a nice taste contrast.

Try out the mint chutney recipe. It is pretty much healthy dipping. Well, depending on what you choose to dip it with.

MINT CHUTNEY                                                                      

Prep:	15 minutes
Cook:	-
Inactive:	-
Level:	Easy
Serves:	4 to 6 as a dip
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Yes, 6 hours ahead.  Place plastic wrap directly over to touch the mint chutney. This helps delay oxidisation and maintain the vibrant green colour.

Ingredients

1/2 cup cleaned, tightly packed mint leaves

1/4 cup cleaned, tightly packed cilantro/coriander leaves and young stems

1 green chilli seeds removed, cut into big chunks.

1 and 1/2 Tablespoons roughly diced purple onions
I use purple onions as these are often the onion of choice to be used in Indian cooking.

1/2 teaspoon roughly diced ginger

1/2 teaspoon roughly diced garlic

1/2 to 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, depending on how tangy you would like the mint dip

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 water
This amount of water makes a runny dip which is the way I serve it. Cut down on the water to between 1/8 and 1/4 cup if you like it thicker.

Directions

Add all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. Adjust salt to taste.  That's it. Serve.

Tips

How else to serve mint chutney?

• It is traditionally served with Indian food and snacks like vadais, pakoras, dosas(thosais), samosas, mathris to name but a few examples

Pakoras are savoury snacks made primarily from vegetables coated in a batter of chickpea flour and sometimes a little rice flour. I might post a recipe for that sometime in the future. I tend to serve them as another easy and tasty pre-dinner party nibble.

Dosas (thosais) are huge, thin, crispy, eggless pancakes made from ground rice and urud dal also known as black gram/lentils and sometimes labelled as white lentils. I cannot make these. I frequent my favourite Indian restaurant every weekend if not every other weekend to have them. Can you tell I like Indian food?

Samosas are fried triangular shaped, savoury dumplings! I doubt anyone else will call them that though. The fillings could be all vegetarian, think fried onions, potatoes, peas with spices. Meat, more often lamb, could be added into the filling as well.

Mathris are to put it simply, fried savoury crispy crackers with spices in them. You can purchase them rather easily from Indian grocery stores.

• With tortilla chips

It is very good with tortilla chips. Tortilla chips are rather neutral tasting chips. Moreover, the chips are the right thickness and comes with the right crunch. It is the chip that goes with almost any dip.

Mint chutney does not pair off well with the more 'earthy' vegetable chips like parsnips, beetroot, sweet potatoes, yam and tapioca. The flavours clash. Go ahead and try them though and decide if you like them yourself. 

Did you notice I did not mention potato chips? For me, potato chips and dips don't get along. They are too brittle and taste best as a potato chip.

• As a mint sauce over grilled baby lamb chops

Lamb is something I do not eat often but if I have this mint chutney on hand, I will quite happily eat lamb.

To the back of the lamb chops is mashed potato with kale. I had blanched, cooled the kale in an ice bath and drained it well before working it in with potatoes, milk, butter, Parmesan cheese, pepper and salt. Not only does the kale mashed potatoes tastes good and go well with mint lamb chops, it also makes a convenient two in one carbohydrate and vegetable dish. 

• As a sandwich spread

I find this a bit odd but the lovely Indian lady from Delhi who introduced me to Indian cooking did exactly this and apparently it is quite the norm where she comes from. I use up any leftover mint chutneys on tortilla chips and baby lamb chops so I have yet to try this but I am quite sure it must be lovely in a lamb or maybe a turkey sandwich.

WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT?                                                      

In my Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack post, I mentioned that I used to make this rather nice Tomato Chutney many years ago but quite forgot how to make it. Since that post, I have been mulling over whether I could recreate the recipe and if it would be worth posting.

I did manage to recreate the recipe and it is worth posting! I will be serving this at my next party! Will it be served with tortilla chips or vadais? It depends. I know it is good enough for me to eat it just as it is, with a spoon.

Coconut Chutney, Coconut Dip

Hi! I'm now working from Wordpress. I've spent a great deal of time editing and reorganising this post on Wordpress and it is so much friendlier to read & follow my recipe from there. Click on this link to take you directly to the recipe:

Coconut Chutney, Coconut Dip

Link to my newest and old recipes, click:

https://kitchenbaroness.wordpress.com/

This is a South Indian version of Coconut Chutney. It tastes like the one served at my favourite South Indian Restaurant. The ground roasted chickpeas/garbanzo beans gives it a rich mouthfeel and a very subtle 'nutty' taste.

I serve this chutney with my Vadai which is a gluten free Indian savoury snack that is quite addictive. Click on the link for my Vadai recipe. It is rather different from conventional recipes.

Traditionally, coconut chutneys are served with a range of Indian savoury food and snacks such as dosas (thosais), idlis, vadais, pakoras to name but a few. Look under my 'Tips' section to find out what these are.

My guests and I like this chutney so much that I have found unconventional ways to serve them. I serve them with almost all manner of vegetable chips and sticks. Curious? Look at the photograph below and refer to my 'Tips' section at  the bottom of this post. 

Try making this Coconut Chutney. It is so versatile and different from the usual dips served up at parties.  Your family and friends would appreciate the change.

COCONUT CHUTNEY                                                                

Prep:	10 minutes
Cook:	3 minutes
Inactive:	-
Level:	Easy
Serves:	6 to 8 as a dip
Oven Temperature:	-
Can recipe be doubled?	Yes
Make ahead?	Up to 6 hours ahead refrigerated, it should be consumed within the day.

Ingredients

For the chutney

1/2 cup (2 oz) (60 g) roasted chickpeas/garbanzo beans/gram
Refer to picture found under 'Directions' to find out what this looks like.

1 cup (3 and 1/2 oz) (100 g) fresh, chilled or frozen grated white coconut

1 teaspoon roughly diced ginger

1 Tablespoon roughly diced purple onion

1 green chilli seeds removed

1 and 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/4 cup water

For tempering

To put it simply, in Indian cooking 'tempering' refers to heating up of spices in hot oil to draw out its flavours. That means tempering can be done in the initial stages of cooking a dish, after which other ingredients, for instance, onions and vegetables are added and cooking continues. 

Tempering is also done to finish off an otherwise cooked dish. Oil is heated, spices are thrown in often in separate succession, to maximise its potency. The flavoured oil and spices are strewn over the dish which can be a chutney as in my Coconut Chutney recipe or in other dishes such as lentils or beans. Tempering to complete a dish adds a lot more flavour to what could be a mediocre dish. Taste the Coconut Chutney before and after you add the tempered ingredients and you will understand what I mean.

1 Tablespoon neutral tasting oil like safflower, sunflower, rice bran and not olive oil

1/2 teaspoon urud dal also known as black gram/lentils. Sometimes labelled as 'white gram/lentils'.

These can be purchased from Indian grocers. The lentils you want to buy are actually off white in colour. The black husks have been removed revealing the inner off white colour of the lentils. You will also find on the grocer's shelves, black gram lentils with husks still attached so they are black in colour. Remember to buy the off whites ones. 

I use urud dal to make my Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack, pictured above.

1/4 teaspoon black mustards seeds

You can buy this from Indian grocery stores

a pinch of asafoetida

Refer to photograph attached under 'Directions' below to find out what it looks like.

Asafoetida is the resin derived from the herbaceous ferula family. You can buy this greyish brownish coloured powdered spice at your Indian grocer. I use this for its anti-flatulence properties. It is an ingredient used as far as I am aware, primarily in Indian cooking. Its use has not transcended borders as much as other spices associated with Indian cooking. Perhaps because it smells dangerously sulphuric. The smell might just shock you enough to send you reeling back a few steps. I keep the plastic container where it comes stored in when I buy it, in a plastic bag and then in a glass jar. That is how pungent it smells.

Add too much of it in your food and it overwhelms the dish. I am very conservative with the amount I add. I cannot accurately tell you the flavour it imparts as it is a totally different spice. All I know is if I add it to my lentil/bean dishes, my tummy feels a whole lot better. If I really have to describe the taste it imparts, I would say it is a mix of onion, fennel and garlic. 

Omit if you cannot bring yourself to buy or use it.

I do use it in my recipe for Vadai, Gluten Free Savoury Snack pictured above.

1 whole dried red chilli

12 curry leaves

Directions

In a blender, pulverise the roasted chickpea/garbanzo beans/gram into a fine powder. Next, place all the other ingredients for the chutney (not the ingredients for tempering) into the blender. Blend until smooth. You may add more water if you think it is too thick but this is the way I like mine - the consistency of thick pancake batter. Some like it the consistency of pouring cream. I like mine thicker as it makes it easier for me to catch as much chutney as I can onto my food and then into my mouth.

This is how tempering is done. Heat the oil in a little pot. I use my little milk pot as the small circumference and high sides protects me from the oil which has a tendency to splattering.

Be prepared to work fast. When oil is hot, add urud dal. Shake the pot to help colour the urud dal a light golden colour.  This happens in a matter of seconds. Watch and don't burn it. Add black mustard seeds and asafoetida. The mustard seeds will start popping in like 2 seconds. Watch it, mustard seeds burn easily. Directly after adding mustard seeds, add the dried red chilli and curry leaves. Be careful, there will be splattering. I shake the pot instead of using a spatula to move the spices around as I do not want to get burnt. I let it splatter away for 5 seconds and remove from the burner.

Continue to work fast as the spice has a tendency to burn. Purely for aesthetic reasons, if I am serving this at a party, this is when I will swiftly spoon out about 1/2  Tablespoon of the tempering ingredients to top on the chutney before I serve it.

Otherwise, pour the chutney from the mixer into the pot and put it back on the burner on medium low heat. Stir for 3 to 5 minutes to prevent sticking. You want the chutney to heat through and not totally boil. Doing this will extend the shelf life of the chutney a little. It should be consumed within the day. Coconut does not keep well.

The chutney tends to thicken the longer you keep it because of the roasted chickpeas/garbanzo beans/gram in it. Just thin the chutney with water. You might need to add more salt too.

Tips

Other ways to serve Coconut Chutney

• It is traditionally served with Indian food like vadais, pakoras, idlis, dosas(thosais), etcetera. 

I serve them with vadai and pakoras because I cannot make idlis (steamed rice cakes) and dosas (huge, thin, crispy eggless pancakes made from ground rice and urud dal/black gram). I have tried but have never succeeded in making those. It is not one of those foods I feel I must be able to make because I will never ever be able to make them better than my favourite Indian restaurant.  Better for me to pay to eat well made idlis and dosas.

Making pakoras is easy enough. It a savoury snack made primarily from vegetables coated in a batter of chickpea flour and sometimes a little rice flour. I might post that recipe sometime in the future. Great pre-dinner party nibbles.

• With vegetable sticks

I serve vegetable sticks alongside the vadais. They are actually very good with red and yellow capsicums, cucumber, and celery. Carrots are good too but they are a bit hard and the chutney likes to slide off the carrot sticks. I have found that it is better to serve them with red and yellow capsicum as if you cut them the way I do (refer to the photograph above), they act as natural spoons.

• Tortilla chips, beetroot chips, sweet potato chips, tapioca chips, parsnip chips

Finally, a bag of anyone of the mentioned chips will suffice if you do not want to make any vadais to go with the chutney. It is all easier than you think and they pair wonderfully with the coconut chutney.

I do not like coconut chutney with potato chips. You go ahead if you like them.

WHAT'S COMING UP NEXT?                                                

Mint Chutney! Mint Chutneys are a nice contrast to savoury Coconut Chutneys as they are fresh tasting and a good alternative dip for vadais.

Look out for my next post.