Peanut Chutney

I think I have mentioned this before – the Indian store close to my house gets fresh veggies only on Thursdays.  I used to be able to go on Thursday afternoons or Friday mornings to get my weekly shopping done.  But since I have started a new job, I don’t get off work till around 4:00 on Thursdays and then need to get home and drive my son to soccer practice at 5:30.  By the time I finish on Friday and go there, all the fresh veggies are gone!

This brings me to today’s post.  I was out of frozen coconut (well I had too little) and so couldn’t make coconut chutney to go with the quinoa dosai.  I really felt like making a chutney, and have made pottukadalai (roasted gram dal) chutney in the past, but was almost out of that too.  I did have a jar of roasted peanuts though, and decided to make a chutney with that instead.

 

I used store bought roasted peanuts.  If you have raw peanuts, you can dry roast them and use that in the recipe.

 

Here is what you need:

• about 1 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
• 2 – 3 tbsp. grated coconut
• 3 – 4 red chilies
• 2 tsp. tamarind pulp (or small marble-sized ball of tamarind)
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp. oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• ½ tsp. split urad dal
• ¼ tsp. hing (asafetida)
• few curry leaves, rinsed

 

Here is how I made it: 

1. Grind the peanuts, coconut, red chilies, tamarind, and salt to a smooth paste adding a little bit of water.
2. Heat oil in a small kadai or pan.  Add mustard seeds, urad dal, and hing.
3. When the mustards seeds sputter, add the curry leaves and turn off the heat.
4. Pour this over the chutney.

Serve with idlis or dosas.