Indian food for non-Indians is naan, butter chicken, chole, saag, as that is the only food they have been exposed to in the restaurants. You would think Indians would know everything about different types of indian foods but Indian food is so diverse and regional that many a times you only know about the food from yours and may be neighbouring region. So even though I grew up in India, there are many indian delicacies that I had not even tasted. For example, Assamese food, Bengali Food or Kashmiri Food.
So when I came to think country, I not only learnt about different cuisines of the world but also different regional cuisines of India as well. The Indian grocery stores here carry things that are used in Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and many other Indian cuisines. One such item was ‘Lotus Stems’, growing up I had never eaten a lotus stem. It is very commonly used in Punjabi & Kashmiri cuisine. In Kashmir they call it ‘Nadru’. So when I started reading about how to cook Nadru, I came across many Kashmiri delicacies. I make many kashmiri dishes now, and I will be sharing a few here.
Today’s recipe however is from a facebook food group. When I saw this post, I knew I had to make it.
I love anything smoked, I love onion, green chili and I love walnuts…so this recipe was just too good to ignore.
Smoked Walnut Chutney
It is so simple to make yet fantastic flavors
Ingredients
1/2 cup walnuts
1/3 cup onion chopped
2 green chilies
1/2 tsp crushed red chilies
1 tsp jeera
1/2 cup or more chopped cilantro
salt to taste
For smoking:
1 piece of coal
Few drops of mustard oil
Method:
Dry roast the walnut and jeera slightly.
Add all the ingredients to a mortar and pestle. On a related note, I am obsessed with the mortar & pestles, I have many in my collection 🙂
Pound all the ingredients till you get a coarse paste. I feel that the coarse texture add to the taste of this dish.
Now take out the chutney in a bowl.
Cover the bowl with a leaf. If you don’t have a leaf, you can use a aluminium foil and poke a few holes in it.
Now take a piece of coal and burn it on the gas flame till it is bright red.
Now place the coal on top of the leaf.
Pour a couple of drops of mustard oil and cover immediately with a bigger bowl.
You will see that it smokes up quickly.
After a few minutes when the smoke has died down, open carefully and enjoy. The recipe looks very easy, but I was amazed how delicious it tastes. Give it a try.
You can even serve it with pita chips as a dip.