Nutty chutneys I

Clearly I'm nuts about chutneys! Well, then why not use nuts to make chutneys?

I have seen peanut chutney and sesame seeds chutney when I was growing up. Peanut chutney was made to serve as an accompaniment to a typical travel food - the spicy dhappate (round, rolled bread like roti made out of whole wheat flour and besan - gram or chickpea flour. BTW, dhappate, also mean a spank in my mother tongue, Marathi, though I fail to see the connection between the edible variety and the item of endurance.  This chutney is a dry, spicy powder. Mix the chutney with fresh yogurt or add a few drops of oil and eat with dhappate or roti! Doesn't this remind you of spiced olive oil and an Italian ciabatta served as a starter in Italian restaurants?

Peanut chutney

 

With what

1 cup roasted peanuts

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

Makes a little less than 1 1/2 cups

How to

Coarse grind all the ingredients together in a blender or a food processor.

My mother still uses her black stone mortar and pestle to make this chutney and soon after you start pounding the ingredients, the peanuts release their oil and automatically bind the chutney together into a creamy, oily, delicious lump. I used Vitamix and tried to capture this effect but did not come close to the mortar and pestle.

How to eat 

I tried a version of Thai pad thai noodles using peanut chutney and soy sauce and they turned out actually quite good.

Ingredients - 2 tbsp peanut chutney (recipe as above), 4 tbsp soy sauce, about 3 cups boiled rice noodles

 Saute chopped bell peppers in a pan. Please feel free to add different colors of bell peppers, red onions, carrots and any other Asian stir-fry vegetable that you like. Meanwhile mix the soy sauce and peanut chutney in a bowl and add that mixture to the peppers. After the sauce starts bubbling, add the noodles and mix well. Decorate with cilantro and serve. These noodles taste good even at room temperature.