Dips Archives - Dees Platter

lahsun (garlic) ki chutney add zing in your food. It is part of traditional Rajasthani cuisine. I have always been blessed with a good neighbourhood. After my marriage, I moved to Chennai and stayed there for 9 months. Later we moved to Jamaica before settling in Bangalore after three years. At all these places I was surrounded by wonderful people in my neighbourhood.

In Jamaica when suddenly my daughter became sick, along with our Indian friends, my Jamaican neighbours were extremely helpful. On the occasion of Apoorva’s 1st birthday celebration, my Jamaican neighbours loved Indian food a lot and they requested to pack some for the next day.

In Jaipur, my parents’ house is blessed with kind and friendly neighbours and food is shared between us frequently. We developed a taste for authentic Rajasthani cuisine because Rajasthani neighbours used to bring food to our house or we were the frequent visitors in their house on several occasions.

So this year, during summer vacation when I visited my parents’ house, all childhood memories were revived. And I was very lucky when we got an invitation from the same neighbours for dinner. We relished all authentic delicacies but I still felt that something was missing from the menu. Then my sister pointed out that garlic chutney is not there. I asked them about the missing dish and got the assurance that before I go back to Bangalore I will surely get “Lahsun ki chutney”.

After coming back to Bangalore I was tempted to prepare this chutney. This chutney is cooked with lots of oil, so we can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge and it will last for at least 2 weeks. We can also use it as a part of gravy for vegetables and tadka for lentils.

In Rajasthan, if you have seen this chutney, you will find that oil will be floating in the container and the chutney is red in colour as lots of dry red chilies are used here. I didn’t want so much oil, so reduced the quantity of oil and instead of dry red chilies, I have used raw red chilies as they were available in my kitchen.

You can check a few more posts in the blog for other chutney recipes also…Imli ki meethi chutney,Tamatar ki chutney,Coriander Chutney (dhaniye ki chutney)

Ingredients :

Peeled garlic cloves 100 gm
Red chili 🌶 50 gm
Oil 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
Salt as per your taste
Asafoetida 1/8 tsp
One small onion and a small tomato 🍅

Process:

Keep peeled garlic cloves, red chilies, tomato and onion together.

Chop onion and tomato and grind everything together in a smooth paste.

In a small wok, heat oil, crackle cumin seeds and asafoetida and add garlic paste. Cook it on sim heat for 15 minutes. Let it cool down completely and use it as any part of your meal.

I like tamatar ki chutney along with poori and paratha a lot in brunch. I like the word “brunch” a lot. It suits occasionally lazy people like me 😉. It allows us to cook just two meals rather than three in a day.

Generally while having poori for brunch I prefer to have curd along with sukhe aaloo ki sabzi Sukhe aaloo ki sabzi (boiled potatoes with Indian spices). But last weekend I thought of trying salty, sweet, tangy and spicy tamatar ki chutney. My mother used to prepare it as a side dish for stuffed parathas and was my favourite!

A small tip:

To prepare this chutney, always buy sour tomatoes, instead of sweet ones.

Ingredients :

Tomatoes, green chilies, dry mint powder or fresh mint leaves, salt, sugar, red chili powder, oil, turmeric powder, rai, cumin seeds and asafoetida. You can go with your choice of flavours like parsley, basil, rosemary, garlic, ginger etc…

Process:

Wash tomatoes, green chilies and fresh mint leaves.

Cut tomatoes into big pieces and chop green chilies.

In a pan heat 2 tbsp oil (I used mustard oil) and crackle rai, cumin seeds and asafoetida.

Add tomatoes and green chilies in the oil along with salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.

Cover it and let it cook on medium to sim flame for 15-20 minutes. Tomatoes are very tender so they don’t take long time to get cooked.

In between turn them upside down but don’t let tomatoes become completely mashed up.

Once tomatoes are cooked add sugar (according to your taste) and sprinkle dry mint powder for flavor. If you don’t have dry mint powder, chop finely fresh mint leaves and add.