Coconut Chutney

Grind a coconut into a smooth paste in the food processor.

In a saucepan, heat some oil. When hot, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, dry red chilies (split) and urad daal. 

Fry till the red chilies turn black in color.

Remove from the fire and add to the coconut paste. Add salt to taste.

Sambhar

Any South Indian cuisine probably isn’t complete without Sambhar. 

Although to know how to make a perfect sambhar might not add stars to your shoulders and features to your cap, but if in case you do not make a good sambhar, it is disappointing for sure! 

   So, here’s a quick recipe for you. Make sure you prepare the sambhar and the chutneys before you start making dosa/Idli.

Quickly Grab
Tamarind
1 cup Toor Dal (also known as Arhar)
1/2 teaspoon haldi
2 teaspoons oil
5 dry red chilies
8 Curry Leaves
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 tsp asafoetida
2 tablespoons sambhar masala
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves
1 cup of a vegetables of your choice like green beans, chopped carrots, brinjal, lady finger, pumpkin etc etc etc…

How to go about it:
Soak tamarind in 1 cup water for 20 minutes. Squeeze it out, adding water gradually to prepare 1 cup tamarind juice.

Choose a heavy cooking pot. Wash and clean the daal. Heat 2 cups of water and add the daal, haldi and 1 teaspoon oil. As the daal boils, skim off the froth and discard. Boil until the daal is soft and then mash it roughly. If required, add some more water as it is boiling but do not let it get too watery. If you use a pressure cooker it will take about 5 minutes.

In a heated sauce pan, pour in the remaining oil. Once the oil is hot, add dried chilies, mustard seeds and curry leaves and stir fry for 2 minutes. Put in the onion and brown lightly. Add tamarind juice and let it boil lightly until the onions are cooked. Add this mixture to the daal with asafoetida, vegetables and sambhar powder. 

Remove from the heat, garnish with coriander leaves.

Vanilla Icing

2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar 
4 tablespoons softened butter or margarine

2 to 4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients with the help of a blender.

Makes about 2 cups of icing. Now you can pour this icing into a icing cone to form desired cake icing.

Cook's Note:

• This is quite a lenient recipe; add more sugar if the consistency is too runny and add more milk if it gets too gooey until you're happy with it.

Spicy Green Chutney

What’s in it?

4 onions

6-8 green chilies

A bunch of coriander leaves

Few twigs of fresh mint leaves

2-3 cloves of garlic

Salt to taste

Amchoor/ dry mango powder

Blend them all for 2 minutes with a little water. Serve chilled. 

Yummy Tomato Chutney

What’s in it?

4 medium size tomatoes

1 onion

6-7 green chilies

1 lemon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp red chilies

A pinch of mint powder (or 2-3 twigs of fresh mint)

3-4 twigs of fresh coriander

2 cloves of garlic

Mix them all expect lemon juice in a blender for half a minute. Add the lemon juice and stir. That’s it!

Suggestion: this tomato chutney goes well with Momos, Biryani, Savory Sausage bread, grilled chicken or simply anything you can think of.