Puli Pottichhathu- a tamarind chutney

I came across a recipe a few weeks back on a relatively new (to me) blog, that instantly took me down memory lane. Memories of the countless summer vacations spent in Kerala came flooding back. Summer was the season when mangoes were aplenty everywhere and it was no different at our ancestral home.
The best part of the Kerala trip for me was undoubtedly the food, especially at my father’s illam. Among other things, I remember eating mangoes, lots of it. A common preparation that was a hit with all the kids there at the time was chopped mangoes slathered with a coarse paste made of crushed shallots, roasted red chillies, coconut oil and salt. It was absolutely heavenly! That has got to be the fondest food memory from my childhood, and this recipe took me there.

The original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:
Tamarind (lemon sized ball) - boiled in ¾ - 1 cup water, cooled, strained and juice extracted
4 -5 red chillies, dry roasted
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 pappadums, roasted on an open flame, ideally
1 tsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp coconut oil
Salt

Method:
With clean hands crush the chopped onions, salt, red chillies and pappadams thereby mixing everything very well. Dissolve the brown sugar in the tamarind extract and add to the crushed mixture. Stir in the coconut oil.

Serve with some hot rice, or do what I did and have it with some chopped mangoes.

Thank you so much for sharing your recipe, Rajani!

This goes to Sig for JFI: Tamarind.

Here's how I like to have to have puli pottichhathu- with chopped mango pieces.