link rel = "image_src” href=”preview-image-here.jpg” / expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' link rel = "image_src” href=”preview-image-here.jpg” / expr:content='data:blog.metaDescription' Sukanya's musings: GONGURA CHUTNEY

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Tuesday, July 17, 2007

GONGURA CHUTNEY

GONGURA CHUTNEY

This recipe is an addition to my collection thanks to my friend Srilatha(who hails from Andhra Pradesh) and who also enjoys cooking just like me. Since I had never had Gongura Leaves in my whole life, I was a little skeptical, but once I tasted the recipe, I was hooked.

The Gongura leaves have a very sour taste. The leaves have a very high iron content. The sour taste of Sorrel is due to the acid oxalate of potash it contains; It also contains tartaric and tannic acids. This gives them their acid flavour and medicinal and dietetic properties. They have been employed from the most distant time as a salad in the western countries and we Indians use it in our cuisine to prepare our curries, dals and pickles.

(To read more about the Red Sorrel or Gongura please refer to the Health section of My Blog.)

Here is the recipe for
GONGURA CHUTNEY

Ingredients
1 Bunch of Gongura leaves
2 onions
5 tbsp cooking oil
5-6 green chillies
2 red chillies split in half
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
A marble size ball of tamarind
1 tbsp red chilly powder (if required)
1 tbsp coriander powder (roasted and powdered) – for added taste
1 tbsp jeera powder (roasted and powdered) – for added taste
Salt to taste.
a pinch of asafetida.
Method
Separate gongura leaves from the stems and wash the leaves throughly. Spread the leaves on a towel for removing the moisture off the leaves. If the gongura leaves are big cut into halves, else use them as such. Chop one big onion.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a kadhai and add the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds, once they are slightly fried add the ball of tamarind, the asafoetida, red chillies and green chillies and fry till u can see the green chillies change colour. To this, add your onions till transparent. Now add Gongura leaves, mix well, Add salt and keep mixing, you can even cover the kadhai till the leaves loose volume and as you mix the leaves with onions the color of the leaves changes.

Cook for 2-3 minutes. Till you see the water completely drain out and the leaves and the spices become one mix. Keep it on a plate for it to cool.

Once it cools down. Grind the mixture in a mixie to a paste(if the paste is not too fine also no problem, if the spices are just crushed and blended with the leaves is more than enough), Infact that gives a better taste like how our grandmothers used to grind on a stone. While you are grinding taste the mixture if more salt or spice (red chilly powder) is required and add if necessary.

While grinding add 1 tbsp coriander powder (roasted and powdered) and 1 tbsp jeera powder (roasted and powdered) – for added taste. This according to Srilatha adds a further punch to the chutney.

Chop the other onion into fine pieces.Once u can see that the mixture is ground remove and add the chopped onion raw.

Now in a Kadhai take the rest of the oil, once the oils is heated add the ground mixture which has the raw chopped onions mixed inside and sauté for a while till the oil enters the mixture and it gets cooked alongwith it. This is done to preserve the chutney for a longer time. This chutney can be kept in the refrigerator for 5-6 days.

The chutney will have the half cooked and slightly crisp raw onions which are a delight while eating, because as the days pass the half raw onion starts marinating in the chutney.

One thing that me and Srilatha agree upon are, the taste of the chutney keeps changing. I think it gets tastier and tastier with age.

This chutney can be served with rice or chappati.
You can just mix this chutney with hot rice and some ghee or oil and eat with pappadams.

Its truly heavenly. The sour taste is tantalizing to the taste buds.

Tip : Gongura leaves have a sour taste and tend to absorb the spices and salt easily so don’t get scared with the number of chillies, but if you are skeptical, add a little and then u can always add red chilly powder.


1 comment:

  1. Hi Sukanya,
    This was really a intersting note. Thanks a lot for forwarding it to me. I will surely try this soon.
    Thanks & Regards,
    Jagdish
    Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:46:21 -0700 (PDT)

    ReplyDelete

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