On Chammanthi and Intrepid Mother-in-laws

Bridget: Does anyone, especially friends from Kerala,  have any favourite recipes for the chammanthi that is served with thalis? I haven’t tried the Tamil equivalent, thogayal. Are they similar?

Asha: You can make chammanthi with all kinds of things.

I use coconut, dried red chillies, sambar onions, a bit of tamarind, salt, and curry leaves, and grind it all with as little water as possible. 

You can also use some dried fish, fried until crisp, sambar onions, and green chillies. Whizz it in the small jar of your mixie,  without any water. It tastes awesome with white rice.

My mother-in-law has nutmeg trees. The outer part of the nutmeg is usually thrown away, but some dedicated people make wine and squash from it. My mother-in-law substitutes the tamarind in the chammanthi recipe with this outer covering. I didn’t know it could be used like this until I saw her do it. You can use any sour fruit in this manner: water apple, star gooseberry, green mango, or bimbli.

Archana: Nutmeg (jaathikka) chammanthi is one of my favourites.

Bridget: And what sort of dried fish? In Mangalore, we have a sort of sambal with tiny dried shrimp. 

Archana: My favourite is a fish we call para (Malabar Trevally). Any dried fish will work, but it has to be fried until crisp, so the flat ones are better, I suppose. Dried shrimp works too. 

With dried prawns we make something called unakka chemmeen chammanthi podi.