Peanut Chutney for beginners

Hi all..
I'm a beginner, an experimental cook. I love to cook but somehow messes up most of what I cook.. Very occasionally I make things that my big family loves. I'm sharing my tried and tested and approved ( by my family) recipes for other beginners like me to follow..

Peanut Chutney :
Peanuts are very healthy .Loaded with proteins, it's excellent for vegetarians.
Peanuts are very popular as a raw nut, fried or boiled but did you know that while fried peanuts are more popular and simply eaten , boiled peanuts are considered more healthy.
Today however I'm using roasted peanuts to make a chutney that is very popular in Tamil nadu . You can eat it with all breakfast items like idly n dosa and also with chapati or poori as a side dish.
It has a nutty, creamy texture very different from normal chutneys.
From my research (googling), I found that this chutney can be made in two ways.
1. Raw peanuts with skin on simply ground and seasoned and tempered.
2.Roasted peanuts deskinned and ground with coconut tamarind and dried chilies.

To me, the second option sounded more.. SAFE.. (my family has weird tastes and they don't like most new recipes unless it's more or less similar to what they are used to lol)

So to make this chutney from scratch....

First you need to do some preparation in advance. That is roast the peanuts in advance and cool them before you remove the skin off it. I would do this the previous day or a couple of hours before  making the Chutney.
Secondly grate some fresh coconut (measurements in recipe below ).

Once the preparation is complete it's just a 2 minute work of bringing everything together and grinding them to a smooth paste. of course you'd need gas to do a basic south Indian tempering:

 Basic peanut Chutney for beginners 

Recipe type:Indian, Breakfast, side dish

Prep time:0.5 hours 

 Cooking time :2 minutes .

Serves:6

Ingredients

Please see notes on how to scale the ingredients 

For Chutney

1. Raw peanuts - 1 cup

2. Fresh Coconut - 3/4 to 1 cup (if more coconut is added texture changes)

3. Dried red chilies -2 or 3 Nos

4. Tamarind - one small marble sized(see notes)

5. Salt to taste

For tempering:

1. Mustard- 1 small spoon / teaspoon 

2. Urad dal- 1/2  half a teaspoon (optional)

3. Curry leaves -5 to 8 leaves or one stem

4 dried red chilly- 1 broken in half

5 coconut oil - 1 table spoon or 2 small spoonful 

Method:

Step 1: Roast the peanuts:

Take a skillet or a heavy bottom frying pan ( non stick or aluminium). Add one cup of raw peanuts. Turn on the gas and set it to medium . Once the pan is hot , start stirring the peanuts . Once the peanuts are hot to touch, add some salt and stir again to coat the salt.

Do this for about 10 minutes. If you do not want to stir continuously, turn the gas to medium low and stir only occasionally(it will take longer to roast). If the pan is too hot ,it will burn the peanuts and also the peanuts do not roast uniformly.

There will be a change in texture, you will see the skin gets a little drier and the the color changes very little. You will know its done when u take the peanut and the skin flakes off. Also try eating one peanut, the inside part will be golden brownish and will taste different.

This took about 10 minutes for me. It may take longer depending on your medium( you can use gas, induction or even oven roast the peanuts)

. The key aspect is that the peanuts should not have any moisture, once you add salt, if the salt sticks to the peanuts, then there is moisture , upon drying the salt will sort of separate or crystallize . This is another way to tell that your peanuts are perfectly roasted.

Once the peanuts are cooled, remove the skin.

Step 2: Grate some coconut:

You can use the coconut scrapper you own and scrape 1 cup of coconut  . if you don't have it, then you can freeze the coconut shell and afterwards take the coconut out and cut the flesh off the shell using a knife. then using a mixie or a chopper , grind the coconut to a chopped form. Alternatively you can use the desiccated coconut packets from grocery stores. 

Step 3: Grind the Chutney

Take the smallest jar of your mixie or the fine grinder. add the Peanuts,coconut, salt,chilies, tamarind ball . Add water. This is a tricky step, you shouldn't add too much water in the beginning. A safe tip is to take about 1/4th  cup ( same cup you used to take the coconut) water first, then grind and add more if required. Another tip , this is What I normally do- is to pour water into the mixie with ingredients and ensure that water level is never above the ingredients, yet if you tilt the mixie, you should see water( if you dont, then it means the coconut has absorbed the water which is never enough). Its always better to put less water, grind for 10 secs, check the consistency and add more if required.

Grind the mixture till you achieve a  Smooth consistency. There should not be any broken pieces of peanuts or tamarind and the coconut should be grounded completely. The texture you are looking for is a smooth creamy thick paste, similar to peanut butter.

Once ground, transfer to your serving dish and check for salt. ( If you are an absolute beginner then its better to add the salt at the end . Again add like 1/4 of a small spoon first and add more only if required. The taste of this chutney should be that of the peanuts and the tempering, not the salt.)

Step 4: Tempering

Now you need to do a basic south Indian style tempering. Tempering is also called tadka /taalikkal/

kaduku varakkal in India.

Take a pan . Add about a table spoon of coconut  oil( a little bit more wont hurt ). Wait for the oil to be hot and add mustard seeds. To ensure that the oil is hot, Put one mustard seed first into the pan, if it splutters, then good, else wait for some more time.

Now add the chilly, urad dal and curry leaves and fry on high heat for 30 secs or till the urad dal turns golden brown and curry leaves crisp up. Its very important that the curry leaf gets crisp and urad dal is browned, it adds to the flavor.

Immediately turn off the gas and add the tempering on top of the chutney. I would prefer to tell you to serve immediately. If you are serving later on, don't mix the tempering into the chutney till you are ready to serve. The flavor changes if the chutney is in contact will oil for long( not very significant and doesn't really matter :p)

You are done :)

Notes:

1. Measurement is key, I always have trouble in this area. When I say 1 cup, it can be any cup you have at home. The cup I used was a Free Horlicks mug we use for tea. But you can even use a professional measuring cup . Ideally a cup would be 250 ml. Hence ensure that if you are using one cup for a recipe, the same cup be used to measure all the ingredients.

if you want to serve for 3 people, take a small tea cup or 1/2 a normal cup , if you want to serve a larger crowd take 2 cups. The ratio should be more of less for each cup of peanuts and coconut, 3 chilies . Tamarinds are not very significant and only very little is required. 

2. Tamarinds: In India, we have no confusion on Tamarinds, they come in a packet de-skinned and de-seeded. But we also find packets which says tamarind pulp or tamarind puree. If you are using that then ensure you taste the sourness first. This is because unlike Indian tamarind, tamarinds that come from say Thailand / Malaysia have different varieties. Some are very sweet. Also ensure you use sour puli /imli / Indian tamarind, not the other versions of tamarind like kokum or kodum puli etc.

If you are using pulp, measure 1 tablespoon for use( the chutney shouldn't be too sour so don't use too much).

3. Urad dal is optional. It will add a lovely crunch to the recipe but it can be hard on the teeth , my father in law broke his tooth biting into urad dal so be careful, don't fry it too much , it hardens on frying.

4. Mustard seeds should splutter, while tempering only once the mustard seeds splutter should you add the remaining ingredients.

5. If you find roasting / removing the skin of peanuts tedious, then don't do it, the chutney will be equally delicious .

6.the chutney tends to solidify upon storing for long, if that happens, add a bit of hot water to dilute but don't heat the chutney directly in pan.

7. Any oil is good, we generally use coconut oil at home which renders a lovely flavor to this recipe

Please comment if you tried the recipe and if you have any questions no matter how basic cooking related it is, Please ask me( this blog is for absolute beginners in cooking)

Enjoy!!