Bangalore Darshini-Style Green Chutney

Course Side Dish

Cuisine Mangalorean

The grated flesh of ½ a coconut
Fried gram (roasted chana dal / putani), approximately ¼ of the grated coconut's volume
2 green chillies
1 large garlic clove
1 sprig curry leaves
A handful of coriander leaves
½ teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
A small piece of tamarind, rolled into a ball
Salt, to taste
Water, as needed

Grind the grated coconut, fried gram, green chillies, garlic, curry leaves, coriander, cumin and tamarind with salt and a little water. Keep it slightly coarse or grind smooth, as you prefer.
Check the seasoning. Add more water after grinding if you want a thinner chutney to pour around your idlis or vadas.
Heat a little oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter, then add the urad dal. Once it is golden, add the broken dried red chilli briefly.
Pour the tempering over the chutney and mix. Serve with steaming idlis or vadas.

For each 1 cup of grated coconut, use approximately ¼ cup fried gram, measuring both with the same cup or bowl.

The homestyle version gets curry leaves in the tempering. In this darshini-style version, curry leaves go into the grinder.
Fried gram means the ready-roasted gram sold as putani or roasted chana dal, not uncooked chana dal.
I tried a few mint leaves and a pinch of sugar in the darshini-style chutney, but preferred it without them. They are left out here too.
The quantities of mustard seeds and urad dal in the darshini tempering were not specified in my caption; use a small tempering suited to your batch.
These are two separate chutneys. Choose one for breakfast rather than combining their ingredient lists.