I know I have been posting only chutney’s, but I feel I’m on a roll and shouldn’t stop. As I mentioned before my family enjoys chutney’s and pickles a lot more than we let on. It’s one of our favorite things to eat. At home, my mom makes it almost twice or thrice every week, but I have gotten lazy for the past few months. Probably because of sleeplessness or could also be because of Arlo jumping up and down on me. I have been come a bit lethargic and making lesser food than I used to make. Even when I’m cooking I’m down to whatever gets inside Arlo and VJ. I have been trying to make more new dishes that I haven’t seen before and also those that are made by mom. I want to put Ammamma’s recipes and also my mom’s recipes. The story goes that Ammamma made the best dishes, and so does mom. My mom makes mukkala pachadi all the time in the summer. It’s made with the tangiest mango and tastes so spicy that your mouth just spits out fire.

But I haven’t found good mangoes this season here in the US. I was suddenly craving mukkala pachadi and since I didn’t find a mango that was green and hard enough to make, I decide to experiment a little. I bought Green Apples the other day and I regretted it. Arlo doesn’t like to eat them, VJ doesn’t eat them and by the time I get to them they are already rotten. This seems to be the case all the time, so why I bought them, I do not have the faintest idea. But then I knew that green apple is a little sour, not as tangy as a mango but just sour enough that it could work. So the first time I served it to VJ he immediately loved it. I made it from 2 green apples and we consumed it in a DAY! And then VJ he doesn’t ask me to make anything, kept asking me to make it again. So when I didn’t buy green apples in the groceries this week, he went for out for something else and brought home a few green apples to make it. I’m so happy a random experiment is so well liked.

Ingredients

Green Apples – 2 (I used 3)

Turmeric – 1/2 teaspoon

Salt – 2 tablespoons (Or as required)

Red Chili Powder – 2.5 tablespoons

Aava Pindi + Menthi Pindi (Mustard seeds Powder + Fenugreek seeds powder) – 3 tablespoons  (Recipe in the tips section)

For Tempering

Oil – 1/3 cup

Mustard Seeds – 2 tablespoons

Asafoetida – 1 teaspoon

Dried Red Chilies – 2 or 3 (optional)

How to Make

Step 1: Wash the green apples and lay them on a towel or a paper napkin until they are dry.

Step 2: Chop the green apples as thin as possible and add them in a bowl (add some salt so they don’t brown).

Step 3: Add salt, turmeric, red chili powder, Mustard Powder, and fenugreek powder. Mix all these together till all the apple pieces have been coated with all the powders.

Step 4: In a small pan, add the oil. Wait for it to get hot and then add the mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering add the asafoetida and the dried red chilies.

Step 5: Serve it with rice, idli, dosa or sambar rice or Pongal or khichdi.

Love,
Po