Not all recipes you try from a blog/book/cookery-show turn out to be tasty. I lately tried a Roasted gram Chutney recipe from a book and it turned out to something that tasted like Asian paints exterior emulsion . That’s the downside of hunting and trying out unknown recipes, especially if it did not include any elaborate pictorial instructions. In such cases, I better skip making the recipe or postpone the idea of trying it. However, there are recipes that exist in magazines and books that run to just 2 lines, but the resulting taste will be yummy-licious, just like this Carrot Chutney recipe !

When my siblings and I used to be younger,Amma makes Biryani very rarely. When it comes to making biriyani at home, the whole family gets together in the kitchen, everybody pretending to help mom . Mom starts by dictating a big list of ingredients, while the sister writes them on a lonngggg sheet of paper. When the father makes a big fuss in going to the market or the stores on other days, he gets ready almost immediately on this particular day knowing the menu. He kick starts his bike, waiting for the complete list and the market bag. He then returns with at least half the market stuffed into a sack bag, buying all and other items that were not in the list too! Mutton, Chicken, Biryani rice, Onions, Tomatoes, Chilies, Cashews, Coconuts, Banana Leaves, Mint leaves, Coriander leaves, Chicken-65 masala, ice creams, betal leaves etc etc and etcetera. My work will be to extract the milk from the coconut…..isk-isk…isk-iskk….squeezing out the freshly ground coconut milk from the cloth strainer as if I’m milking some cow. Those days, the only kitchen work done perfectly my sister is, cutting onions . So she cuts and sets the onion raita ready. While mom will be busy making the special meal, dad will be busy reading the newspaper so seriously as if he had to write an exam in next few minutes . The two younger ones, the brother and sister will be busy fighting for the TV remote . By the time the hot hot Mutton Dum Biryani, Mutton gravy and Chicken-65 gets ready, it’ll be around 2 pm, which by then, the two little devils will get tired of fighting and will come to terms to watch one TV channel and dad will fall asleep over the newspaper . But then, when their nostrils sniff the approaching aroma of the flavorful Biryani, everybody automatically comes and sits for the lunch. So that’s how our Biriyaani weekend goes .

One of my uncles says, You can make ‘chutney’ with anything edible! just add chilli and something sour and a bit of sweet and salt of course. It’s similar to LIFE! :) He suggested GoJingalala to go exotic and try various chutneys with different produce… even with horse radish and wood apples . I kinda postponed to implement his suggestions in my chutney recipes until I encountered quite a lot of funny but tasty chutney recipes in a cookbook from where I picked this coriander seeds chutney and ginger chutney. I’m now all set to try out chutneys with various other produce too, say, apple chutney, radish chutney, cabbage chutney, carrot chutney, chowchow chutney, Gooseberry chutney, snake guard chutney, bottle guard chutney and so on. Apart from this list, my mom makes few other unusual chutneys like Pirandai Chutney and Thoothuvalai thogayal. In Madurai, we get fresh brunches of Pirandai from the Friday market and Thoothuvalai plant grows just like that in our streets. Readers don’t get hyper…. you’ll have to wait until I compose and publish all these ‘unusual’ chutney recipes. In the meantime, I thought I can write about few of my South-India’s ‘clichéd’ Chutney recipes, like this Tomato Mint Chutney recipe.

I do not have much to talk about this Inji Chutney Recipe (Ginger Chutney recipe) since it’s taken from the same magazine supplement like this Coriander seeds Chutney (Whole Dhaniya Chutney). I’ve tried many recipes from cookery shows but seldom tried any from magazine supplements. It’s because the recipes in magazines won’t have Step-by-step pictures . They wont have any detailed cooking instructions. We’ll have to imagine and cook whatever their instruction says . And the book from which I picked these chutney recipes was no difference. But still, I thought, why not give it a shot? Such a thought brought in this healthy Fresh Ginger chutney to my kitchen .

Huh… these days I can see myself transforming into a cookaholic wife, for, the husband asks for ‘variety’ in taste. So I had to incarnate in the form of …say… a Marie Curie! Experimenting with different produce…. different recipes….different cooking techniques and so on in my kitchen lab…! The best part is when my Pierre Curie [yeah, you should understand it’s the husband] assist me with some ideas and cooking tricks into the dishes! Being a blogger you should understand that I cook with a camera hanging from my neck, holding it for a perfect shot every time I add in any ingredients during the cooking process. While my eyes will be glued to the camera’s viewfinder and my right hand glued to the shutter release button, I will be needing assistance in, say, to spoon the ingredients into the wok or to grab the right spatula from the kitchen drawer or to pull out some herbs from the refrigerator etc. In such situations, I simply held out my other hand, like a doctor prompting her nurse for the right surgical tools during an operation. There comes Pierre Currie again promptly handing over the right kitchen gadget or the cooking ingredients. So you now get the blueprint of my kitchen lab? Are you imagining us wearing any chef caps like the doctors wearing operation caps??…he he he…no we don’t.

You’re Welcome. Yes, you’re welcome! Because I know I’m going to get loads of paper garlands from my readers with THANK YOU notes written in it ;) This Chicken Breast recipe is going to get an overwhelming response like how my Pepper Chicken Fry recipe did!There used to be days when we used to enjoy Chicken Tandoori for most of the week-end nights. We somehow got bored of it and desperately wanted to have a different recipe to marinade the Chicken. Thus came this Simple, Quick and easy Chicken rub recipe. Preparing this Chicken marinade or the Chicken rub is no big deal. It is a ‘No-Grind’ marinade recipe. All it needs is fresh Lemon or Lime, for the zest and the juice. Yes we’ll be using both the juice and the essential oils from the lemon/lime skin (lemon/lime zest) along with some cracked pepper and finely minced garlic.

Wishing the Readers, Visitors, Friends and Peers of CookingJingalala a Very Happy Vinayagar Chathurthi. We rolled some Patra for Lord Ganesh this year. He got impressed very much and promised to grant all my wishes .

When there is still a compartment full of chutney recipes from my family and extended family that are yet to be posted in Cooking Jingalala, I chose to try out some new chatney recipes from magazine supplements. I carried with me piles of magazine supps. from India that had good collections of chutneys, sweets and snacks recipes. This ‘Gundu Malli Chutney’ is one of many other thuvaiyal/chutney recipes which I encountered from these books.

Heads-up, regular followers of Cooking Jingalala… Like all other chutney recipes of mine, this time I wouldn’t guarantee that you’ll greedily eat idlis after idlis and dosas after dosas with this Dhaniya chutney. But it’s definitely not a bad recipe to try. And yes, this chutney takes in a strong flavor from the dried coriander. You may need to increase the heat and/or the tart by adding more chilies and/or tamarind respectively in order to balance the taste.

A humble lunch; Steamed rice – Hot Rasam – ‘Warm Tilapia Fish Puttu’ –> If you are enjoying this sitting at home, consider you are blessed!

Did I say I used to feel weird when the cleaning-cooking-eating is done by me while handling meat/poultry/fish in my previous post ? Several years back, when I prepared my ‘first’ non-veg dish [which was Chicken Varutha Kari – a family recipe], that night, I had ugly dreams of handling and cutting countless chicken pieces and mutton pieces with great difficulty. I can still remember how my face looked in that dream. It looked like an angry butcher working with a blunt knife . I felt as though the chicken is taking the revenge by haunting me in my dreams. It’s true that the same dream re-played every time I had to work with meat/fish. But it’s all ‘thoughts’. Once I started to follow the trick on handling meat/fish from my mom, I had no more replays of that ugly dream.

He said: ‘MMmmmmmmm…..mmmmm… you nailed it’. The dish was ‘Mutton Varuttha Kari’- a recipe passed on from my paternal grandmother to my mom……

Did I tell you that Sambhar was the first recipe I learnt from my mom? I’m still continuing my culinary education in her University, but now it is distance education (actually should be called ‘a-lonnnnnng-distance-education’). She conducts the theory classes from India over the phone and I dry run the recipe during the hands-on in my very kitchen here in the US. Just listening to the theory I will be able to replicate the DNA ribbon of the original recipe to almost 85% in my first trial. However, there will be at least 15% defect in my RUN1 of the recipes [as assessed by the tester, who is the husband here.] The tester reports: ‘masala formula not correct’ or ‘masala not perfectly cooked’ or ‘something’s missing’ or ‘just not your mother’s recipe’. I’ve thus failed the tests many a times in an attempt to mimic her recipes.