Red Coconut Chutney

This is a nice variation and a break from the mundane coconut chutney. Goes well with the lighter south Indian stuff like rava dosa, rice dosa, etc.

Ingredients:

1) 1 cup coconut pieces
2) 1 and 1/2 tablespoons black gram (urad daal)
3) 1 and 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
4) salt to taste
5) 4-7 dried red chillies (depending on how spicy you like it)
6) 1/4 teaspoon tamarind paste OR 1/4 teaspoon dry mango powder
7) 10 curry leaves
8) 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
9) a pinch of asafoetida
10) 1 teaspoon oil.

Ingredients:

1) Grind Ingredients 1-6 together to a dry powder
2) Add water at room temperature till it becomes a fine paste.
3) heat oil. Add Ingredients 7,8 and 9 till mustard seeds pop and curry leaves are crunchy.
4) Add the oil mixture to the chutney and serve hot!!

Peanut chutney

Another old-time favorite that I would love with bread. This too, is a great accompaniment to most Indian dishes.

Ingredients
1) 1 cup peanuts, dry roasted and skin removed (UNSALTED)
2) 2 green chillies
3) 1 clove garlic
4) a pinch dried mango powder OR tamarind juice (if you don't have any of these, use some sour yogurt - you may leave 2 tablespoons of yogurt out overnight to ferment it)
5) mustard seeds
6) curry leaf
7) 2 teaspoon oil
8) A pinch asafoetida (heeng)
9) salt.

Method:
1) Roast Ingredients 1,2,3 in one teaspoon of oil.
2) grind with salt and water and ingredient 4 till you get a smooth paste.
3) heat oil. Add ingredients 5,6,7 and add to chutney.
4) Serve with anything you like.

Green Coconut chutney

This has many many many variants, which I will be putting as a footnote. Here's the basic recipe.

Ingredients
1) 1/2 cup chopped fresh coconut
2) 1/4 cup chana dal (green gram - dried, roasted, and split)
3) 2 big green chillies
4) 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, washed
5) a very very small piece of ginger (optional)
6) 3 leaves of mint (optional)
7) 2 teaspoons plain unsweetened unflavored yogurt (optional)
8) salt
9) half a teaspoon oil
10) a pinch of mustard seeds
11) a pinch of cumin seeds
12) a pinch black gram (split)
13) one stick curry leaves.

Method:
1) Combine ingredients 1-8 (whatever you are using) and grind. Add water as required. You should get a smooth paste.
2) Heat oil. Add the black gram lentil. Let it change shade. Add mustard and cumin seeds. Add curry leaves and fry till curry leaves are crispy.
3) Pour this into the chutney (and NOT the other way around)
4) Serve with whatever you want to eat it with.

Onion Chutney

Just made a nice fresh bowl of this stuff for dinner. Its a very typical Andhra dish, but goes with almost everything you can imagine. When I was a kid, I'd butter up some brown bread and spread a bit of dried onion chutney, throw in come carrots and radishes to make one pungent sandwich.

It goes well with idly's and paranthas alike (my personal favourite accompaniement to this is dosas). It make s great dip as well. A version with chopped tomatoes added (mentioned after the recipe) can also be tried out.

Onion Chutney

You will need
1) 2 large red onions, chopped
2) 6-7 dried red chillies
3) salt
4)1 teaspoon oil
5) 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds

Method:
1) Heat 1/2 a teaspoon of oil and add the chillies.
2) When the chillies are crunchy, take them out and grind (for a food processor, make sure you use the dry-grinding/spice grinding option)
3) toss the onions in the pan (dont add more oil), till they are pink
4) Add the onions and salt to the food processor and grind till you get a paste.
5) Add the remaining oil to the pan and heat. Add the mustard seeds. Add the onion paste and toss for exactly 30 seconds (we do NOT want to drain out the moisture from the onions)
6) Serve it at room temperature with absolutely anything!

Variation.
To step 3, add one tomato chopped, with the seeds removed.