Urad-Toordal Chutney (Lentils Chutney)

When I think of my newly wedded days, I cannot recall even a single day when I went out for vegetable shopping until my mom-in-law came to stay with us for couple of months. We were in Mysore those days & now I pity that I never went to KR Market even once for vegetable shopping. My mom-in-law was particular about every vegetable. She never agreed to prepare rasam without curry & coriander leaves. She used to make me or her son go to a nearby vegetable shop to get those. She was very specific about what she needed. She used to tell us that, without curry or coriander leaves, rasam doesn’t taste good.

Whenever we did not have vegetables at home, she used to come up with mouth-watering chutneys along with rasam. My mom-in-law & her relatives are chutney experts. She fine tuned my cooking skills, made me understand the importance of each vegetable, spices that go into a dish & many more things. I have learnt whole lot chutney recipes from her & I will let you all know. It’s just a matter of time.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp urad dal/ಉದ್ದಿನಬೇಳೆ/split black gram

1 tsp toor dal/ತೊಗರಿಬೇಳೆ
2 red chillies
1 tsp coconut oil (Any cooking oil could be used, but coconut oil adds the flavor to the chutney)
6-8 curry leaves
½ cup grated coconut.
1/4th tsp thick tamarind extract or a raisin sized tamarind soaked in water.
Salt according to taste.
For tempering/tadka/oggarane
1 tsp oil
¼ tsp mustard seeds
3-4 curry leaves (optional)
A generous pinch of asafetida/hing


Method:

• Heat the coconut oil in the tempering pan, when oil is hot, add urad & toor dal to it. Fry till the dals turn golden brown. Add the broken red chillies, curry leaves & fry it again for a minute. Allow the mixture to cool.
• Make a paste out of the above mixture, coconut, tamarind & salt by adding little water.
• Scoop out the chutney to a bowl, prepare the tempering & pour it on to the chutney prepared.
• Mix well & serve it as a side dish for rasam-rice, curd-rice or roti.
  

Tempering Procedure:

• Add oil to a pan, when oil is hot, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves. Switch off the flame, add asafetida. Tempering is ready to be poured on chuntey prepared.