Our Chennai trip is incomplete without relishing Retna aunts (our family friend and neighbor) puttu – kadalai curry and appam – thengai paal. We ( M, SIL n I) like this combo so she always serves this way. (PS: I learned a fair share of Kerala delicacies from aunty and her family. You can find a few on my blog too. ) This time aunty served appam with thengai paal and this dry coconut chutney aka podi chammanthi aka thogayal thoran. I fell in love with this chutney and ate the chutney plain. It was that good. I got the recipe right away and tried a couple of times. It’s a failproof recipe that comes out great every single time. Now here I am, sharing the same with you all. As I mentioned before, this dry coconut chutney ✓ is failproof and easy to make ✓ has a longer shelf life ✓ made with minimal ingredients. ✓ made in less than 20 minutes ✓ can be served with many dishes like with plain steamed rice, dosai, appam, idli, etc
Dry Coconut Chutney Ingredients & Substitutes:
For this coconut chutney, you need coconut, shallots, red chili powder, salt, and some oil, curry leaves and mustard seeds. That’s all. You can use freshly shredded coconut or frozen coconut thawed to room temperature and that’s what I used. I won’t recommend dry coconut or the kopparai or the unsweetened coconut that we use for baking as it alters the change. We need three shallots for this recipe. We use one while grinding and two while sauteing. But you can always use ½ tbsp of chopped onion (red or yellow) while grinding and 2 tbsp of chopped onion while sauteing. We use coconut oil for sauteing and intensifies the flavor. But you can always use any neutral oil. As I mentioned in the bunny chow post, in my opinion, there is no substitute for curry leaves, so if you can’t source, you can ignore curry leaves.
Why Thogayal Thoran?
This kind of dry chutney is popularly known as podi chammanthi but I am using the term thogayal thoran. :-) Thogayal is the Tamil word for chutney. Thoran is the dry curry or stir-fry in Malayalam. We grind coconut, red chili powder, and onion as we do for thogayal but also temper and saute the ground chutney along with shallots as we do for thoran – hence I went with the name thogayal thoran. We don’t need to add any water while grinding the chutney and also as we saute the chutney, it further becomes dry and that in turn increases the shelf life. If you are like wet chutney then try this raw mango chutney from Kerala. Recipe Notes:
Both fresh and frozen coconut works well for this recipe. If you are using frozen, make sure to thaw it to room temperature. Adjust the red chili powder and salt according to your preference. Coconut oil is preferable, but any other oil with high smoke point works as well. Instead of shallots, you can use red onion. Use about ½ tbsp chopped red onion while grinding and 2 tbsp chopped the onion while sauteing. If you can’t source curry leaves, you can ignore it.
Now without any further ado, here is the detailed dry coconut chutney recipe with step-wise pictures and video. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for more videos.
How to Make Kerala-Style Dry Coconut Chutney?
Take the shredded coconut, one shallot, red chili powder and salt in a mixer jar or blender.
Grind it coarsely without adding any water.
Heat a pan and add coconut oil. When the oil hot, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Allow the mustard seeds to sputter.
Then add the finely chopped shallots.
And saute for 30 to 40 seconds.
Next, add the ground coconut paste.
Over medium heat, saute the ground coconut mix for approx 60 to 90 seconds. Turn off the heat.
Allow it to cool completely and store it in an air-tight container and refrigerate. Use a clean spoon during every use.
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📖 Recipe
