MyMusingsSangSpeak- Pet Puja - Dry Fruit Chutney

Dry Fruit Chutney

The dry fruit chutney recipe I am sharing here is the family recipe of one of my close school friends. Friendships may last or not last, but, this recipe has stayed with me till date. The sweet, sour and tangy taste lingers on reminding me of the sweet childhood days. This chutney has an awesome and unique taste due to the ingredients and is quite easy to make and you are sure to love it. It tastes good with almost anything.

Ingredients

Raw Mango – ½ kg

Dates – 125 gm

Dried Apricots – 250 gm

Black Currants – 125 gm

Big Currants – 125 gm

Tamarind – 125 gm

Ginger – 100 gm

Sugar – 750 gm

Brown Vinegar – 250 ml

Water – 350- 400 ml

Red Chilli Powder – As per taste

Method

The raw mango murabba (jam) needs to be prepared a day ahead. For the raw mango murabba, skin the mango and cut in cubes. Pressure cook the raw mango in a covered utensil for about 10-12 minutes. Mix sugar and 250 ml water and bring to boil and add the cooked mango and cook for 8-10 minutes. Allow to cool, cover and store aside.

Wash and clean all the dry fruits well. Remove seeds from the dates, apricots and black and big currants. Chop dates and apricots in small pieces. Soak tamarind in water for an hour and strain the pulp and keep aside. Remove the skin from ginger and chop it into small pieces.

Add vinegar, tamarind pulp, chopped ginger, red chilli powder to the raw mango murabba and boil for about 10 -12 minutes. Finally, add all the cleaned dry fruits to this boiling mixture and bring to boil once and remove from fire. Allow to cool. Store in sterilised glass jars/bottles. Refrigerate if you plan to keep it for longer than a month.

MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Kairi Pudina Chutney (Raw Mango Mint Chutney)

Kairi Pudina Chutney (Raw Mango Mint Chutney)

Kairi Pudina Chutney is a sour sweet accompaniment for summer meals and quite easy to make. It goes well with many fried snacks too. It is made of all fresh raw ingredients and acts as a coolant for harsh summers.

Ingredients

Raw Mango – 1 medium sized

Mint – 8- 10 sprigs

Jaggery- 2 tablespoons

Green Chilly – 1 medium

Garlic – 6-8 cloves

Salt – As per taste

Cumin Powder – ¼ teaspoon

Water – ¼ cup

Method

Peel and deseed the raw mango. Cut mango into small pieces. Break jaggery into small pieces. Mix all the ingredients together and grind to a fine paste. Add more water if required. Refrigerate the chutney. It stays refrigerated for about a week.

MyMusingsSangSpeak- Pet Puja -Kawath/Kavath Chutney (Wood Apple Chutney)

Kawath/Kavath Chutney (Wood Apple Chutney)

Kawath/Kavath Chutney (Wood Apple Chutney) is one of my favourite dishes and I try to make it as often as possible, though the fruit is quite rarely available all over India.

The scientific name of Kawath (Kabeeth/Kavooth/Wood Apple) is Limonia acidissima and it is native to mainly Indian Asian Subcontinent. It is also known as curd apple, monkey fruit or elephant apple. This fruit is generally consumed on the fast of Mahashivratri day and has religious significance.

The fruit has a tough outer cover of wooden texture and the inner pulp is very sour and has seeds. It has a heady aroma and I love this fruit to bits. The tree has some medicinal benefits and the fruit is rich in Vitamin A and B.

The fruit pulp has high content of pectin and hence, one can make jams and jellies too out of it. One can also make a sherbet with lovely sweet sour taste with amazingly fresh aroma. The fruit is generally consumed in chutney form, either sweet with jaggery/sugar or a tangy one with little salt and chilly powder. I prefer the sweet chutney. It is so tasty and tempting that one can just go on eating, but, one of course needs to be careful as it contains high amount of sugar.

It is quite difficult to choose a wood apple for eating. Go for the fresh one with a lovely fragrance.

A sweetmeat known as Kawath/Kavath Barfi is also available in shops near Kolhapur Mahalaxmi Mandir and this comes generally from Kurundwad, a place in Kolhapur district. This is a hard boiled sugary speciality, I am sure all Kolhapuris can relate to it.

Ingredients

Wood Apple - 1 no

Jaggery - One and a half times or twice the amount of the fruit pulp

Method

As the wood apple cover is tough, you require a heavy object/hammer to break it. Remove all pulp and set aside. Cut jaggery into small pieces and mix it with the fruit pulp well with your hand. Leave for two to three hours to allow good mixing of pulp and jaggery. The chutney tastes good as an accompaniment with chapatti or one can eat it just like that.

Note - The colour of the chutney varies with the fruit, extra ripe fruit will be dark brown. The colour of jaggery may also be light or dark brown. 

MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja -Sabudana Wada Chutney

Sabudana Wada Chutney

Sabudana(Sago)Wada is an all time favourite Maharashtrian snack. It is a sure shot hit dish for any snack party. Actually, Sabudana Wada is made on Upvaas(fasting) days. In Pune, there are many places serving the best sabudana wadas- Balgandharva Canteen, SiddhiVinayak Wada, Joshi Wadewale and so on. This snack is so tasty and delicious that one can just go on eating continuously, even if the stomach gets full, the tongue may just go on asking for more.

Ingredients

Sabudana(Sago) – 100 gms

Potatoes – 2 nos

Roasted groundnut Powder – 50 gms

Cumin Powder – ½ teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder - ½ teaspoon

Salt – As per taste

Oil – For frying (approx 150 ml)

For Chutney

Curds- 100 gms

Fresh Grated Coconut - 50 gms

Fresh Corinader – 5-6 sprigs

Ginger – ½ inch piece

Sugar – 2 teaspoons

Green Chilly – 1

Salt – As per taste

Method

Soak Sabudana for about 3 hours. Boil the potatoes, remove peels and mash well. Mix all the ingredients, i.e. soaked sabudana, mashed potatoes, roasted groundnut powder, salt, red chilly and cumin powder well and keep the dough for 10-15 minutes. Now, make small wadas of this mixture and fry in hot oil on medium flame. Be very careful while frying sabudana wadas as they have a tendency to burst open. Turn wadas on both sides so that they are fried evenly. Remove from oil once they turn a golden brown, spread on paper to remove excess oil and serve hot with chutney

Chutney

Blend together 100 gms curds, fresh grated coconut, 5-6 sprigs of fresh coriander, 1 green chilly, a small piece of ginger, 2 teaspoons of sugar and salt as per taste. Add more sugar if required.

Note – Sabudana Wadas taste good with tamarind chutney too. Be very careful while frying sabudana wadas as they have a tendency to burst open. 

MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja - Groundnut/Shengdana/Moongphali Chutney

Groundnut/Shengdana/Moongphali Chutney

Shengdana(Groundnut, Moongphali) Chutney is the ultimate accompaniment and you are sure to find it in nearly all Maharashtrian kitchens. It goes well with all menus. All the wada-paav lovers must be surely familiar with this chutney. It is most easy to make shengdana chutney and can be used in many ways too. It is a dry chutney that can be stored well for about 2-3 weeks. My mother always took the pains to make shengdana chutney with her hands by pounding it in her favourite heavy duty iron pounder. This way the chutney gets unique texture and taste.The slow rhythmic pounding extracts oil from the groundnuts and the chutney  becomes more flavourful. 

Ingredients

Groundnuts – 1 cup

Garlic – 10-12 cloves

Salt - 1/4^th teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder – 1/4^th teaspoon

Cumin Powder – A Pinch

Method

Roast groundnuts lightly and once they cool down, remove the peels. Mix all the ingredients together and grind in the chutney jar of the mixer. The chutney needs to be of coarse texture. Store the chutney in an air tight jar, preferably stainless steel.

Note

You may add more chilly powder if you like more spice. The chutney can be used along with white butter or pure ghee with chapati or bread. If you want the chutney to be more crunchy, then you can roast it lightly on low flame.

Variations - You can make variety of dips from the shengdana chutney. Add little curds and a dash of sugar and a tasty dip is ready. You can make a salad(koshimbir) of tomato with curd and shengdana chutney. 

MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja- Vegetable Cutlet

Vegetable Cutlets

Vegetable cutlets have a very interesting story to tell in my case. Being in the army meant long train journeys for us and the most memorable one is the Jhelum Express one, of nearly one and half days. Many people call this as the “Jaalim Express” as it never ran on time and because of the pathetic food that used to be served on board. My daughter was about 5 years old when we started taking trips in this train. She never liked the food served in this train as usual, but, used to relish the vegetable cutlets served in the Jhelum Express. The vegetable cutlets were served as part of vegetarian breakfast and she demanded cutlets to be served for all 3 times that is breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We frequented this train many times and now the waiters also knew about this child who demands cutlets at all times and the Jhelum Cutlets became a special dish for our family. My biggest food critic, my daughter  would always remark “Mamma, the cutlets you make are not as delicious as the Jhelum wala cutlets”, whenever I made them at home. This made me practise more to perfect the cutlets.

I really don’t know how much change has come over in the food served on board the Jhelum Express in last 16-17 years since we last traveled in this train, but, cutlet making does evoke all these memories.

Ingredients

Potatoes - 4 nos(boiled, peeled, grated)

French Beans – 50 gms, finely chopped

Carrot – 1 medium, peeled and grated

Green Peas – 50 gms (coarsely ground in mixer)

Cabbage – 50 gms, grated

Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 teaspoon

Bread Slices – 2 nos (coarsely ground in mixer)

Turmeric Powder - ½ teaspoon

Red Chilly Powder – ½ teaspoon

Garam Masala Powder – ½ teaspoon

Salt – As per taste

Suji/semolina – Approx 50 gms

Oil – 50-75 ml

Method

Heat a non stick pan and take very little or no oil and sauté the chopped French beans for a minute, then add the coarsely ground green peas and stir for a minute. Sprinkle few drops of water and then add the grated carrot and cabbage and stir fry for a minute. Now add all these sautéed vegetables to the boiled, peeld and grated potatoes along with ginger garlic paste, coarsely ground bread, turmeric, chilly powder and salt and mix well. Make small vegetables cutlets with hand and shape with cutlet cutter if you wish. Then roll in suji and shallow fry in a non stick pan with little oil till they get a golden brown colour on both sides. Dab the cutlets on paper to remove excess oil if any. Cutlets are ready to be served. Accompaniments that go well with these cutlets are tomato sauce, green chutney or tamarind chutney.

Note – You may add some fennel seeds also to the coating of suji. Boiled and grated beetroot can also be added for extra flavour and colour. Cutlets can be coated with bread crumbs as well.