Injipuli

The ginger is fried brown before anything else, which is what takes its rawness out.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 200 g ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons tamarind paste
• 200 g jaggery, grated
• 6 green chillies, chopped
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 4 dried red chillies
• 20 curry leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 5 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 300 ml water

Method

1. THE GINGER IS FRIED BROWN BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, WHICH IS WHAT TAKES ITS RAWNESS OUT. Its article gives the step and the reason in one clause: the ginger is peeled, finely chopped or sliced, and FRIED IN COCONUT OIL UNTIL BROWNED, WHICH MELLOWS ITS PUNGENCY. Two hundred grams of raw ginger would be inedible; browned, it turns sweet and almost malty, and that is the whole trick of the dish. Its name says the same thing -- inji for ginger and puli for tamarind, the two defining ingredients.
2. BROWNED MEANS BROWNED, AND IT TAKES TEN MINUTES. Over a medium heat, stirred, until the pieces have gone from pale to a proper nut brown and have shrunk noticeably. Pulled out golden, the dish bites.
3. THE FOUR TASTES ARE BALANCED AND ITS ARTICLE NAMES THEM ALL. Sweet, sour, salt and heat -- jaggery, tamarind, two teaspoons of salt and the chillies. Any one of them short and it tastes wrong rather than mild.
4. IT IS COOKED DOWN TO A JAM, WHICH ITS ARTICLE SAYS. Until it reaches a THICK, JAM-LIKE CONSISTENCY. Forty minutes at a low simmer, stirred often as it thickens.
5. THE TAMARIND AND JAGGERY GO IN TOGETHER AFTER THE GINGER. With the green chillies, into the pan with the browned ginger still in it.
6. THE TEMPERING IS ITS ARTICLE'S LIST. Mustard seeds, fenugreek, dried red chillies and curry leaves, with turmeric and salt.
7. THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF OIL AND THAT IS WHY IT KEEPS. Its article explains it: the high tamarind, jaggery and oil content is what makes it keep well, so it is often made A DAY OR MORE IN ADVANCE and stored like a pickle.
8. IT IS A CONDIMENT AND THE QUANTITY ON THE PLATE IS TINY. Its article is precise: served in a VERY SMALL QUANTITY at a FIXED POSITION on the banana leaf, conventionally the top corner, and eaten in small amounts BETWEEN MOUTHFULS to cut the richer dishes.
9. ITS ARTICLE WILL NOT SAY WHICH KIND OF THING IT IS. It notes that different sources call it a curry, a pickle or a chutney, which is a fair description of something that behaves like all three.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes