Pudina chutney - a minty fresh experience

I love to be outdoors, and I prefer walking in lush green woods to be outdoors as in malls. It is just a personal preference. While it is enjoyable to run on the treadmill set up inside the house, it definitely is much more therapeutic to go outside and get some fresh air along with the exercise. If all this talk is giving the impression that I am some kind of a fitness freak, let me correct the wrong notion because I am just a conscious person about my well being. On another note, I tend to believe that weight (or the lack of it) is not related directly to how healthy you are although I would love to lose a few pounds just for the sake of being able to get into those college days pair of jeans I keep hidden in the closet always :-).

Well what is outdoors got to do with today's post? Bear with me while I set the stage and take you there. With the weather being what it is currently, I am just setting out on my long walks almost every evening and BH has been a very willing companion if he makes it home in time. I take the saying 'take in the smells and enjoy the nature' literally when I walk outdoors. If I see a Magnolia tree full of white or pink blossoms at a distance, I pace myself so I am inhaling when I am closer and around the tree, if I smell anything fragrant, I stop and look around until I spot a lilac bush or a jasmine creeping out of a neighboring fenced backyard :-). So I understand completely when BH said the other day that walking with me was very similar to walking Flora (our part lab, part terrier 50 pounder) except that we go after different kinds of smells, ha ha ha..

A small lake by the side spotted on one of the walking trails - surreal & beautiful

And why am I talking about aromatic experiences? But I am coming to the point, I promise. I am almost there. Before leaving India, I knew what mint or pudina was, that wonderfully fragrant herb which literally carries the pulavs and biryanis of the world on its fragile shoulders. But life was very simple back then, I used to go to the corner vegetable shop and ask for a bunch of pudina if we were out of the herb in the back yard or the lady with the wicker's basket would bring it along with many other fresh greens early in the morning. When I went to the farmer's market here for the first time and tried to pick a bunch of mint, I was offered a choice of varieties of mint - spear mint, pepper mint, curly mint, apple mint, ginger mint and some more. I stood there completely lost and then tried to smell each of them in the hope that I might be able to recognize some familiar aroma. I think I finally got home some spear mint since pepper mint sounded like a candy to me and the other mints were totally unfamiliar. This morning, we went to a garden store to get some saplings for our summer kitchen garden, ended up buying stuff for another raised bed (yes, we are both crazy about gardening though we haven't found our green thumb flourishing since we moved here), seeds to start and some plants for a head start. And I found a couple of new mint varieties named grape fruit mint (smelled heavenly, milder mint with a hint of citrus) and chocolate mint (not for me, too strongly minty) and I have brought a small grapefruit mint plant home. I will keep you posted on the progress as it takes root in the backyard.

Last year, one of my generous friends and DD's music teacher not only gave me a big bunch of pepper mint grown at home, she also gave me a rooting to plant. I put it in the pot since mint is notorious for hogging space and growing wild, used it a couple of times before winter set in. Through the winter, the pot looked completely devastated and its chances of springing to life seemed really bleak. But nature takes over and communicated with the plant through the temperature changes and 2 weeks back, there was a definite green patch all around the pot's top surface and then it just grew big in no time. Here is how the pot looked yesterday before I harvested some to make my all time favorite pudina chutney.

There are different recipes of this chutney and amma makes it without coconut but I love nammamma's version with the coconut. Flavored with home grown pepper mint, this was one delicious chutney. This is the same chutney I added to my pesto pasta once. Mix it with rice, eat it with dosa or idli or bread - it tastes refreshingly divine.

What do you need to make pudina(mint) chutney? 
1 big bunch of fresh mint - leaves picked (makes about 2 packed cups of leaves)
1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
marble sized tamarind
2 Tblsp chana dal/kadle bele
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds
3-4 green chilies (adjust to taste) - broken/cut into two pieces
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp oil

How do you make pudina(mint) chutney? 

• Heat oil in a wide pan, add the chana dal, fenugreek seeds and green chilies until dal turns light pink and green chilies form blisters on their skin. 
• Wash and tap dry mint leaves. 
• Add the mint leaves to the pan and roast it stirring frequently for about 4-5 minutes or until the leaves wilt and become limp. 
• Switch off and let cool. 
• Take the roasted ingredients along with tamarind, salt and coconut to the blender and grind into a slightly coarse textured paste using water as needed. 

Notes:

• Use lemon juice for tartness instead of tamarind. Add lemon/lime juice to the chutney once it is ground and give it a good mix. 
• I keep one of the green chilies aside without roasting and add it while grinding. This gives a little 'aha' feeling on the tongue because of the raw chili. 
• If your mint is tender, use the stalks too in the chutney. Avoid if it is too think or looks fibrous when you break it. 
• I usually add the tamarind piece to the pan just before switching off the stove to make it softer and more amenable to grinding. This is not needed if your tamarind is soft and sticky. 
• You can skip the chana dal and use roasted chana (also called kadle in Kannada and chutney dal generally) you get readily in Indian grocery stores for an easier chutney. Nammamma used both as kadle gives more volume to the chutney. I personally prefer to up the volume with chana dal as I like that taste better. 

Beginner tip: Whenever roasting green chilies in oil, make sure you have either cut it or broken it in to pieces to avoid it popping all over. 

Pudina Pulav - A warm pot of rice loaded with veggies and some protein

While I wait for Summer for a number of reasons, Farmer's markets top the list. It is easy in India to find the small shops around every street corner that is loaded with fresh vegetables but here I am mostly at the mercy of super stores that ship vegetables and fruits across the globe. I love farmer's market for 2 reasons - one it gives me the opportunity to walk in the fresh air, pick up the vegetables and secondly I get to talk to people that have actually grown and picked the vegetables which makes it special. The place where we live has multiple farmer's markets running almost every day of the week which is an added bonus. One word of advice for farmer's market shopping - do not go looking for 'Indian' vegetables, buy what is available with the vendor. If you look for exotic stuff, chances are that some smart guy is just getting them from afar and selling it as locally grown :-).

Saturday morning, DD & I went to a neighborhood farmer's market and picked up some great looking green peas in shell. The freshness of the peas almost transported me (without any air tickets :-)) to Mysore. I picked some up along with a bagful of wonderfully crimson wine ripe tomatoes.  The peas were a great buy and my first thought was to make some methi-mutter (fenugreek-peas gravy) with butter but since my fenugreek is not yet ready for harvest I settled on the pulav. Although it is called pudina(mint) pulav and mint takes center stage, the fresh peas did wonderfully add to the taste of this dish.

Pulav is a comforting, no-mess, one pot dish. It comes in handy for lunches or dinner and the best part is you can load it up with a choice of vegetables and get your serving of veggies in a tasty morsel. Mint in the pulav enhances the flavor greatly. The veggies that are pulav friendly are beans, carrots, potatoes, peas, cauliflower. simple thumb rule is to use firm, neutral tasting vegetables in the pulav. Avoid radishes, cabbages, beet roots or squashes in pulav :-)

What do you need to make Pudina Pulav? 
2 cups rice - preferably Basmati variety
3.5 cups water
2 cups of chopped vegetables - any favorite combination of beans, carrots, potatoes, peas & cauliflower
2 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp cooking oil
3/4 cup soy chunks - I used nutrela brand (optional)

Pudina masala: 
Mint leaves - picked and tightly packed to make a cup
4 green chilies (adjust chilies to taste)
About 4 - 1 inch long cinnamon pieces
2 cloves
3-4 black pepper corns
1 green cardamom
1 inch piece ginger root
1/4 of a small onion (~1 Tblsp of chopped onions)

How do you make Pudina pulav?

• Wash rice in 2 changes of water and soak it in water for 30 minutes. 
• Prepare the vegetables - wash, peel and chop them into bite size chunks. 
• Take all the ingredients under pudina masala and grind them into a smooth paste with 1/2 cup water. 
• Heat a pan, add oil and the chopped vegetables and salt. Cover and let the vegetables soften for 3-4 minutes on medium heat.

• Add the ground masala and switch off the stove. 

• Drain the soaked rice and add it to the masala veggie mix with remaining water and put it in an electric rice cooker - this is what I did today. See notes for other ways of cooking pulav. 
• I boiled the soy chunks in water for about 8 minutes (package instructions) with 1/4 Tsp salt, drained, squeezed and added them to the pulav before serving. skip this step if you are not using soy chunks. DD loves soy chunks in pulav and hence I add it. 

• Serve hot pulav with any raita of your choice. We had ours with a simple cucumber raita and microwave roasted papads. 

Notes: 

• You can cook pulav on stove top or in pressure cooker. Make sure you keep an eye on the vessel in the stove top method and not let the bottom get burnt. 
• Basmati rice typically takes 1:2(rice:water) ratio but soaking it 30 minutes prior to cooking already softens the grains and since you need a fluffy pulav with grains seperated, do not use more than the specified amount of water. Make sure you account for the water used for grinding the masala.
• You can add a Tblsp of grated coconut to the pudina masala for additional taste.
• Do not add more of cardamom as it tends to get overpowering. 
• Jack up the number of cloves and pepper if you like the garam masala flavor or increase the green chilies if you like the chili spice. While you can play with the amount of spices, keep in mind to have Pudina/mint as the focus of this pulav, the amounts given above make for a 'perfect' blend of flavors and dishes a not too spicy and not bland pulav. 

Variations: 

• One of my aunts deep fries slices of regular white bread and puts it on top of cooked pulav as garnish, it tastes great. 
• Add a handful of cilantro or fresh coriander leaves to the masala while grinding if you like the flavor.

Tomato-mint chutney - A spicy relish

Chutney's are like a beautiful piece of jewelry or a pretty dress, they are decorations, embellishments to enhance a meal. Growing up, my chutney experience was limited but married into a Telugu family where chutneys or pachadis as they are called is a norm at every meal, I have broadened my horizon with chutneys. A traditional Andhra home meal is not complete without a chutney/pachadi. Some day, I will blog about thalis at home when I can get to such a well prepared fare :-) but until then it will be in bits and pieces.

Chutneys are two types - one you mix with rice which is slightly dry and spicy and the other you use as a dip or side dish with dose, idli, roti etc which is slightly runny in consistency. We had a stone grinder at home in Mysore and it was my favorite kitchen work to make chutneys in it, the fringe benefit was that I could keep tasting the chutney as I ground the ingredients. But the tasting was only allowed with nammamma's permission and was completely taboo on certain days:-), so I had to be sneaky. The best part of the chutney grinding in a stone grinder was if the rice was ready, amma would give me a couple spoons of rice to put into the grinder, scrape the chutney off, mix it with rice and take it onto a plate to slowly enjoy the fresh, spicy chutney anna(rice), Ah... that is a visit to heaven right there.

Today's chutney is an evolved recipe and is mainly an accompaniment to dose or idli. We love mint flavor at home and I make the popular pudina/mint chutney very often with coconut. I wanted to try something without coconut and also recreate a tomato chutney I had had at a restaurant. Resulting chutney is delicious, spicy and goes well with a variety of dishes. This has now become a family favorite.

What do you need to make tomato-mint chutney? 
3 medium sized tomatoes (use fleshy variety of tomato) chopped roughly
1 cup packed picked mint leaves
1 Tblsp chopped onions
Small piece of tamarind or 1/2 Tsp tamarind paste (see notes)
1 Tsp chana dal/kadle bele
3-4 black pepper corns
2-3 green chilies - slit lengthwise
1/2 Tsp crushed jaggery/brown sugar
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp cooking oil

How do you make tomato-mint chutney?

• Heat oil in a pan, add chana dal, pepper corns and green chilies. Fry for a minute until chana dal roasts and turns light pink. 
• Add chopped onions and fry for a minute until it turns pink.

• Add the mint leaves and give it a stir.

• Add the chopped tomatoes and continue to fry until tomatoes turn mushy and the leaves wilt completely - additional 3-5 minutes depending on the heat. 

• Switch off the stove, add salt, jaggery and let the mixture cool completely. 
• Take everything to your grinder/mixer and blend it to a smooth mixture. You will not need any water for this as tomato blends well. This chutney does not have a bright red color as tomato mixes with green mint.

• Enjoy the spicy chutney with a hint of sweetness and loaded with mint flavor. We had ours with the water melon rind dose. 

Notes: 

• Wait for the mixture to cool completely, if you grind when hot or warm, the taste changes. 
• Adjust the chilies and black pepper to your taste, I like it more peppery than the chili heat. I added a piece of dry red chilies also this time.
• You do not need tamarind if the tomatoes are sour, so adjust accordingly. 
• Whenever using green chilies in frying, make sure you have cut it open (a slit or a chop), else you will have them popping over the place.