Tarka Daal & Gujarat Papaya Chutney

This weekend was cold as usual in London which is pretty usual at this time of year. And also as usual, this weekend curry was back again. I hadn't planned to but we had a guest over and he likes curry, so on Saturday morning I sat with a pad and made plans on what to cook.

After a comment from one of my blog readers about the Thai papaya salad I had made on Friday night - I thought I'd use my remaining papaya to make an Indian papaya chutney along with the curries. I also made Tarka Daal as it is just a perfect curry accompaniment.

I'll start with the Papaya Chutney - its very simple but very good as a side dish. I had no idea papaya tasted so good.

Papaya Chutney

You need:

1 green papaya
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1-2 green chillies, chopped
1 pinch Asafoetida
1 tbsp. oil
salt
2 tbsp. water

Simply peel and then grate the papaya and put to one side. Fry the mustard seeds in the oil until they start to pop and add the asafoetida and chillies. Fry for a few minutes and add the papaya. Mix well, add 2-3 tbsps. water and a little salt. Cover and cook on a low heat until the papaya is tender, about 4-5 minutes. Put into a serving dish and eat at room temperature. That's it!

Another way to make this would be a recipe hailing from Bengal where they add sugar and raisins but I preferred the chillies and mustard seeds version as I fancied a savoury, but I imagine that would be good too. In the recipe I have put up, you can really taste the papaya which in other recipes I find gets lost. Its mild but really delicious.

I also made a Tarka Daal which I absolutely love. I imagine there are many recipes handed down over the years.. but here in London - this is the one I made (I often make small changes to the recipe) and it never fails to disappoint.

Tarka Daal

You need:

200g of Toor Daal
1 tbsp. oil
2 tsp. cumin seeds
1 onion, finely chopped
3 whole green chillies, left whole but pricked with a knife
1 inch piece ginger, chopped
2 large tomatoes (or 5-6 cherry tomatoes)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp. ground coriander
salt & pepper
handful fresh coriander, chopped


Put the toor daal in a pan and add water to cover by about an inch. Bring to the boil, cover and then leave on a medium heat as they cook. They will take about 1/2 hour to become tender, so top up the water as needed. You don't want them to be dry. Remove from heat and set to one side.

Heat the oil and fry the cumin seeds until fragrant and add the onion, chillies and ginger and cook on a medium heat until tender and the onion beginning to brown. Blitz the tomatoes and garlic together in a hand blender and add to the onion mix. Stir well and then add the ground spices along with 100ml of water.

Season with salt and leave to simmer gently for 15 minutes. Then add the onion mix to the lentils, putting them back on a low heat. Add a little more water to loosen if too dry and season with a 1/4 tsp. salt and ground black pepper. Stir in chopped coriander and serve.

Here is a picture of the completed (mostly Indian) curry meal.

A feast of spice!