Pumpkin Chutney and some prehistoric utensils

I am a hoarder. There, I said it. But I'm not the only one. It runs through my veins. I come from a family of hoarders and the CEO of my hoarding brood is my maternal thati (grandma). Thati probably learnt the art from someone in her family, but what a boon it is to me now. Not only are we hoarders, but both my thatis (maternal and paternal) share a love of cooking. (Not to forget my mother who inspired me to cook healthy). And what do people who love to cook love even more to collect? Anything they can get their hands that is even remotely related to the kitchen. Like miniature pyrex mugs, stoneware and brass vessels used in the 1930s, baking tins and cookie cutters from the 80s, lead vessels (yes they used to cook in lead) and so many more antiques. Some of them are going to debut on the www this month.

Today's feature is a miniature stone bowl which was used before plastics reared their ugly heads into our kitchens. It belongs to my thati who has preserved it so carefully for all these years. Ironically it was used to store chutneys which goes so well with my chutney theme all this month at Vegan Mofo. It is slightly chipped off from one side, but I think it adds to the memory of that bowl. I wonder how many chutneys this bowl has seen before I decided to capture it for eternity.

And before I forget my daily task, here is today's find: Lettuce Free Vegan whose theme this month is vegan baby food. That food looks delicious even if you are not a baby and her 11 month old daughter is the cutest.

Winter is coming, but we're having some crazy heat in Bombay. Lucky for us though we get pumpkins throughout the year. The most commonly used one, specially by south Indian cooks, is the Yellow Pumpkin (also called Red Pumpkin colloquially). If you eat food in a south Indian home, you will probably eat this every three days. We love adding it into sambars or stews, my mom makes a killer pumpkin raita which I have have veganized of course. I also LOVE this Pumpkin & Fenugreek Soup which I make in the winter.

So for this vegan Mofo post number 5, I am going to elaborate on a very very delicious chutney. I absolutely love how so many different flavours are incorporated into this one pretty looking chutney and they all stand out so vividly. My mom and grandmothers make this chutney quite often and so will I from now on.

For this chutney I have used a small variety of the yellow pumpkin. I have no idea what it is called here, but it is not available throughout the year. It is harder than the usual big yellow pumpkin that we usually consume so it took a little longer to cook. But the end is worth the wait.



You need:

250gms of any yellow pumpkin (washed, peeled, deseeded and chopped)***
1/2 cup fresh/frozen, grated coconut (not the dried one)
2 dried red chillies
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp split/urad dal
1/2 tsp salt
a small lime sized ball of tamarind
1 tsp any oil

All the ingredients on my much abused cutting board

In a small pan, heat 1/2 tsp of oil. Add the asafoetida and red chillies and stir them around a bit. Don't let the chillis burn. When the chillis swell up add the chopped pumpkin and stir. Cover with a lid and let it cook for 5 to 8 minutes. If you find it drying up add very little water. I had to because my pumpkin was on the firmer side.

Once the pumpkin is done, put it into a small blender jar. Add the coconut and salt to it. Blend into a smooth chutney. In a small wok, heat the remaining 1.2 tsp of oil and add the mustard seeds and urad dal. Stir it around so the urad dal doesnt burn. When the seeds splutter and the urad is a nice light brown, add it to the chutney.

Serve with rotis, rice, dosas, bread or just eat it all!

Pumpkin Chutney in a  (prehistoric) stone bowl

*** DO NOT throw away the skin and peels. Store it in the refrigerator if you have to. Because tomorrow I'll tell you how to chutney them! 

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Tamarind & Date Chutney aka Sweet Chutney

It's day four of the Vegan Mofo challenge and as much as i would love to see what all the 600 people are doing every single day, I'm afraid it's just not possible. Everyday from now on I will share an interesting blog I found while attempting to see all that I can among all the blogs.

Today's find of the day is : Vegan Fling. Check out Melissa's amazing No Bake Oatmeal cookies or the Pomegranate Vanilla Limeade. Her pictures are stunning too!

In keeping with my chutney theme, today's chutney is a sort of a complex recipe. Most of the other chutneys I have come across are simple and involve a little bit of cooking and a lot of blending. This chutney is a little more time consuming. So when I make this, I make a big batch and freeze it for subsequent uses. I usually don't freeze stuff because in India, the idea  of eating freshly cooked food every day is something of a habit. Our weather permits us to get fresh fruit and vegetable every day and food kept longer than a day is considered stale. Many communities (mine included) will not eat food cooked the previous day. So our freezers are usually a small section of the fridge unlike the ones in the US where the freezer is a huge, deep, never ending drawer. I do see people buying those humongous fridges here too, but the freezers aren't nearly as full as the ones I have seen in the US.

This chutney is the partner/wife/husband/spouse of the basic green chutney that I have posted earlier. It is almost always served up with the spicy green chutney so that you get a bit of both when you take a bite of whatever you are eating. This chutney is also served with spicy samosas and bhajjis. It is famously used in street food (also known as Chaat) in Bombay. It is a very sweet chutney but lots of people add red chilli powder to this to make it a sweet, sour and spicy chutney in one. I usually make the green chutney when I want to use this one because I feel like the coriander/cilantro-mint combination adds a nice depth of flavour when it is all mixed together.

You need:

500gms of seedless Dates (any variety)
1 and a 1/2 cups of jaggery powder
50gms of skinless tamarind or 3tbsp thick tamarind paste
2 and a 1/2 cups of water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (optional)
2 tsp cumin seeds roasted and powdered

Cook the dates in the water till they become soft. Stir it around in intervals to ensure that the dates are not sticking to the bottom. If the water has evaporated, add little water. It takes about 30 minutes for the dates to become fully soft. Once cooked, cool it a little bit before you put it into a blender. You do not want a kitchen full of date purée  You can also use a hand blender to purée the dates.

In the mean while, soak the tamarind in about half a cup of water. If you are using tamarind pulp, you can omit this step. After 20 minutes squeeze the [life out of] tamarind so that you extract all the pulp. Remove the fibre and seeds and put it through a sieve and add this to the date purée. Add the jaggery and put it back on the stove. Let it come to a boil, after which you can add the salt, chilli powder and cumin powder. That's it. 

Cool it completely before freezing.

Dense, flavourful and yummm!

Some ideas to use this chutney:

It can be added to a potato chaat - boil potatoes and chop it into big chunks; mix with green chillies, chopped coriander, diced tomatoes, onions, salt, lime and this chutney.

It can be served as a sweet dip for spicy snacks like samosas, bhajjis and wadas

It is very commonly used in street food in Bombay and one of them is Ragda Patties (pictured above). Ragda is sprouted white peas that are cooked in a spicy tomato-onion gravy base and the Patties are mashed potatoes made into medals and roasted on both sides. And then after you've done all that, serve it with the spicy green and this sweet chutney on top. 

It can be added along with green chutney to make bhel puri - puffed rice, diced tomatoes, onions, coriander, sev, roasted peanuts.

You can even add some vinegar to it and make it into a salad dressing.

I even think this will make a great sorbetto when frozen. It is very sweet and has the sourness from the tamarind. 

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Apple Thokku aka Cooked Apple Chutney

It's day three of vegan Mofo and I am keeping the chutney theme alive! Check out the amazing vegans from the US and all over the world who are taking part this year.

Thokku (toh-kuh) is the south Indian way of describing a type of chutney. A thokku is usually made by grating and cooking a vegetable to remove the water out of it and then adding the flavouring after it is cooked. South Indian chutneys are usually coconut heavy. A thokku will not involve coconut unlike a thogayal (tho-hail) which is another type of chutney made with mostly raw vegetables. The spiciness usually comes from red chilli powder as opposed to dried red chillies in a thogayal. And that is your Tamil lesson for the day!

Apple thokku is something my grandma makes pretty often. You have to be really lucky to be able to witness the greatness of your grandmothers in the kitchen. I still remember helping my great grandmother in the kitchen. She is too old to cook now, but the memories of her wrinkly hands making perfectly symmetrical murukkus is something I won't forget.

India is lucky to have apples growing in the north of the country. When those apples are not in season, we get the Washington, Granny Smith and Fuji apples too. Unfortunately the vendors are spraying or coating the apples with wax and sometimes thin aluminium foil to make them look shiny and "appealing". I hate peeling my fruits and vegetables, but I certainly don't want to eat wax. To check if your apple has been "waxed" take the non-sharp end of a knife and scrape your apple. If you find a creamy off-white substance coming off the skin it has something on it. Try it and tell me what you find. I also am not an raw apple person. I know I'm killing most of the nutrition from it when I cook an apple, but I'd eat an apple pie any day over a slice of apple.

This thokku is very simple to make and takes about 15 minutes from start to finish. I have made this recipe oil-free so it will not stay as long as it normally would otherwise. The sweetness of the cooked apple and the hot hit from the chilli powder is a very interesting flavour. I initially didn't like the idea of mixing fruit with something spicy, but as you grow older you tend to be a little more adventurous.

You need:

2 Apples, peeled and cored

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/8th tsp asafoetida

1/2 tsp jaggery

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Grate the apples with a medium holed grater. Heat a small pan and add the mustard seeds. When they begin to splutter, add the asafoetida. Add the apples and let it cook for about 6-8 minutes. Stir it around occasionally. Once the apples are soft and the water has drained off, add the salt, chilli powder and jaggery. Keep it for a minute more and then take it off the flame. Add the lime juice and store in a jar in the refrigerator.

This apple thokku could be a replacement for a pickle. It can be used as an accompaniment with some roti or a rice dish or even on top of a slice of bread or with dosa.

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Coriander Mint Chutney aka Basic Green Chutney

I'm beginning the awesome Month of Vegan food with the simplest, most versatile green chutney. This chutney can be found in most homes and even on the streets of Bombay. It is used as a side with rotis, it can be added to a vegetable while cooking it, even to a pulav/pilaf, it is used as a sandwich spread in the famous Chutney Sandwich and is used in my favourite street food in Bombay- Paani Puri.

It is a dark green, chlorophyll laden, lump of goodness. It is usually the spicy chutney and served with a sweet chutney which I will put up soon. To this basic recipe, you can add fresh grated coconut or raw peanuts to give the chutney a thicker body and tone down the spice. Us Indians love our chutneys hot, so this one might be way too spicy if you are not used to the Indian level of spiciness. I have used the dark green chillies which are the spiciest. If you find a milder green chilli, you can use it. They are usually lighter in colour. You can also add raw onions and raw garlic to the mix to give it a nice depth of flavour. But I'm not a big fan of raw onions or garlic. There are quite a few people who don't like coriander but they usually don't mind it in this chutney form.

So here is the recipe for the most versatile chutney ever with a few ideas for its use listed below.

You need:

A Big bunch of the freshest coriander/ cilantro - washed and de-stemmed (about three cups)*
Half the amount of fresh mint leaves - washed and de-stemmed (about two cups)*
4 dark green chillies
1 inch piece of ginger
Juice of 1 lime
1tsp Salt or more
a pinch of black salt if you have some
Water

Optional ingredients:
1/2 medium sized red onion
2 cloves of garlic

OR
4 tbsp fresh, shredded coconut

OR
a handful of raw peanuts


*The reason the stems are removed is so that the chutney stays thick because the stems have quite a bit of water in them. Mint takes a bit of time to clean and remove each leaf from the stem, but thin coriander stems are okay to add. Just make sure you don't add any roots.

Add into a blender and blend away. (This has to be the shortest description ever!)

You might have to stop a few times to push the ingredients down towards the blades. Add a little water if required. Squeeze the lime at the end and mix well.

Store in the refrigerator for up to ten days or freeze it for a hundred years. :)

A few ideas to use this chutney:
Sandwiches are great ways to use this chutney. A popular chutney sandwich is made with two slices of bread with chutney and ketchup smothered on them. It goes well on bagels too.

On the streets of bombay, a toasted chutney sandwich is made using this chutney spread on bread with raw tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, boiled potatoes and beetroot. It is served with ketchup and a generous sprinkle of sev. Other street foods like Bhel puri, sev puri and paani puri use this chutney extensively.

This chutney can be served with dosas and samosas.

You could add this chutney to onions while cooking them to add more flavour to your vegetable, bean and grain dishes.

I've even used this chutney with some vegan mayo as a dip for chips and vegetable sticks.

It can be added to a salad of raw vegetables or even to a salad with root vegetables.

Sandwich one morning: Whole wheat rosemary and garlic bread with chutney and cucumbers.

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Vegan Mofo 2012 is here!

As I said in the earlier post, Vegan Month of Food 2012 (Vegan MoFo) is back! It feels like the last one was just a few months ago. The idea here is to get vegan bloggers to come together under one umbrella and blog every single day (!!) for the whole month of October. This year more than 600 hundred vegan bloggers from all over have signed up for it. 600!!

I'm totally not prepared for it. Blogging every single day would require me to have thirty one recipes ready. I'm lazy, but there are people who write a post every single day and how I wish I could be one of them. You are allowed to pick a theme if you like for the month or for every week. Basically you get a free hand. I thought this time I would pick an easy theme and post a recipe every day. So this year I picked chutneys, dips and spreads. Easy no? Not!

I picked that theme for many reasons. Chutneys are the easiest way to eat lots of the vegetable or fruit in the raw. They can also include cooked vegetables blitzed so that their flavour is heightened. They are usually very easy to make and can be paired well with so many things. In India, specially in the south, chutneys are very important. They are made out of a myriad of ingredients from vegetables like eggplant, pumpkin, snake gourd to fruits like apples, bananas and pineapples. There are even dry chutneys which are a blend of powdered pulses and oil seeds  that are mixed with oil to make it "wet". One example is something I did during Vegan MoFo last year - South Indian Gun Powder.

I have made a few observations from recipes of chutneys. Trying to add all the "tastes" in them brings out the flavours even more. Spice from chillies and pepper in fresh, dry or powdered form, Sweetness from jaggery, sugar or the main ingredient like a fruit, Sourness from tamarind, lime, green tomatoes or vinegar and of course salt. Fresh, shredded coconut gives nice body to a chutney. But it also means that they don't last for too long. Don't add too much water because that again reduces the shelf life. Store wet chutneys in the refrigerator and dried ones in pretty glass jars.

Along the way some more useful tips should come out of this exercise and I know I am going to learn so much. So here's to a month of great food on great blogs! Happy MoFo!

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