Chammanthi / Spicy coconut paste

When I have food from outside which does not taste good then I always wish if I could get a bowl

of rice,curd and chammanthi :)

It involves no cooking! yet tasty.

At times when I am lazy or if all the veggies in the fridge have been finished up or expired 'chammanthi' saves me.

You can include it as a side dish for your Kerala meal. It also goes well with boiled tappioca (Kappa puzhungiyatu)

Here goes the ingredients.

Ingredients :

1. Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

2. Pearl onion - 1

3. Ginger - 1" length

4. Green chillies - 2

5. Curry leaves - 5 or 6 leaves

6. Tamarind - half the size of a goosebery

7. Chilly powder - 1/2 tsp

8. Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Grind all the above ingredients with a little water in a Mixer so that it becomes a paste. Don't grind it into a very smooth paste. 3,4 pulse would be fine.

Just cut the onion, ginger, chillies for easy grinding.You can skip ginger if you want. If you don't want it to be very hot skip the green chillies or chilly powder.

I love to have chammanthi with a bowl of rice , curd and a pinch of salt. Try this combination if you haven't yet.

It stays fresh for more than a week in fridge :) so don't worry if you have made more quantity.

TIP: To get a red color chammanthi, instead of green chilli use red chillies and don't add tamarind.