Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

1. Ripe tomatoes - 3 large
2. Onions - 2 medium
3. Green chillies - 3
4. Garlic - 4 pods
5. Jeera - 1 tsp.
6. Coconut - 1 tbsp.
7. Salt - to taste
8. Oil - 1 tsp. (for seasoning)
9. Mustard - 1/2 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Chop onions and tomatoes into large pieces.
2. In a heated pan, add tomatoes, onions, green chillies, jeera, garlic and roast them with closed lid for around 5 minutes. Do not add oil or water. They should be roasted and give out a slightly burnt smell. Stir once or twice in between to facilitate even roasting and to prevent excessive burning.
3. Grind the above with coconut and salt.
4. Pour the ground chutney back to the pan and boil for 2-3 minutes.
5. Season with oil and mustard seeds.

It goes great with idlis.  

You can omit the coconut if you want. That would make a more tangy and less coarse chutney.

Quick Green Chutney

When you want to make chutney and you don't have much time on hand, this will save the day. In fact this doesn't involve the stove at all, except for the seasoning! We made this when we were out of cooking gas and made idlis in the electric rice cooker.

Ingredients:

1. Roasted gram dal (Pottu kadalai in Tamil; Kadale pappu in Kannada) - 3 tsp.
2. Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
3. Green chillies - 2
4. Coriander leaves - a handful
5. Salt - to taste
6. Oil - 1 tsp.
7. Mustard - 1 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Just grind together all the above ingredients with a little water and the chutney is ready. 
2. Season with mustard spluttered in oil.

Variations:

1. M-I-L adds garlic and ginger to the same.
2. Mom reduces the coconut and increases the gram and calls it 'healthy'. Trust me, its not tasty though!

Onion Chutney

For all those who want a coconut-free tasty chutney. Mom invented this for dad when he was ailing and it tastes yummy! Tastes very good with dosas!

Ingredients:

1. Onions - 3 or 4 medium sized
2. Urad dal or whole urad - 2 tsp.
3. Red chillies - 3 
4. Tamarind - 1/2 inch piece (negligible amount)
5. Salt - To taste.
6. Oil - 3 tsp. + 1 tsp. for seasoning
7. Mustard - 1 tsp.

Procedure

1. Chop the onions.
2. In a kadai, heat oil and roast urad dal till it turns brown.
3. Add the chopped onions and fry for a long time till the onion turns golden brown. Add the red chillies and fry for 30 more seconds.
4. Grind the above together in a mixie along with salt, tamarind and little water.
5. Season with mustard seeds spluttered in hot oil.

Groundnut Chutney

M-I-L's recipe and G's favorite chutney....until he got married! Tastes best with Idlis or Ragi Dosa.

Ingredients:

1. Groundnuts - 1/2 cup
2. Jeera - 2 tsp.
3. Garlic - 6 pods
4. Grated coconut - 1 tbsp.
5. Red chilles - 2 or 3
6. Oil - 3 tsp.
7. Mustard
8. Salt - to taste
9. Tamarind - 1/2 inch piece ( very little)

Procedure:

1. Dry roast the groundnuts till the groundnuts start changing color.  Add jeera and red chillies and roast for half a minute more. You may add 1 tsp. of oil while roasting jeera and red chillies.
2. Grind the roasted groundnuts, jeera, garlic pods, coconut, tamarind piece and salt in a mixie with little water.
3. Heat oil, add mustard. When the mustard splutters, season the chutney with it.