HAGALAKAI/KARELA/BITTER GOURD CHUTNEY

This is a wonderful tasting chutney, a combination of bitter, sour and sweet. Goes very well with hot rice and ghee and can be a good accompaniment with chapathi etc.

Ingredients:

Bittergourd                        1/2 kg

Onions                              4-5 medium

Salt                                   4 level teaspoons

Sarina pudi                       4 teaspoons (heaped)

Tamarind                          1 big lemon sized or 1 1/2-2 tablespoons thick paste 

Jaaggery                           1 cup (powdered) or ¾ cup thick syrup

For seasoning:       

Oil                                     4-5 tablespoons

Mustard seeds                  2 teaspoons

Curry leaves                     8-10

Ingu/asafetida                 ¼ teaspoon

Turmeric                           ¼ teaspoon 

Procedure:

Chop bitter gourd into about 1” pieces and slice the onions. Let the volume of sliced onions be about half that of chopped bitter gourd.

Run them in the mixer along with salt and tamarind into a coarse mixture.

Now heat oil in a thick pan. Add mustard seeds. When they sputter add curry leaves, turmeric and asafetida. And immediately add the ground paste. Fry till the mixture does not smell raw any longer and it leaves the sides of the pan.

Now add jaggery and mix well. Add sarina pudi and mix well again and cook till it thickens and leave the sides of the pan.

Allow it to cool and store in bottles or steel boxes.

Will stay good in the fridge for months.

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

I started baking bread more than 15 years back.

We like bread, but we prefer whole wheat bread to that made using maida/refined flour,

It is very difficult to find whole wheat bread in the market. Even the ones we get with the label `Wheat bread’ are also a mix of maida and wheat flour, I guess.  Because if it is only wheat bread, it feels heavy to handle whereas the only maida or wheat-maida mix bread is lighter. A local baker even told me that one has to add 50% maida or else the bread will not rise!

Once I came across a recipe for whole wheat bread in a news paper.  And that was the take off point for my bread making! I tried it and on repeated trials, succeeded in getting a perfect loaf of bread! And it does rise without adding maida!

If you go through the recipe, you may feel that it a difficult task. But it is not so. It is time consuming that is all. In the sense, you will have to wait for at least two to three hours for the flour to rise and nearly about half an hour for baking. Including the preparation time, the process takes about four to five hours.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour                                             4 cups

Dry yeast                                                           1 teaspoon

Jaggery powder/honey                                      2 teaspoons

Salt                                                                    1 teaspoon                  

Warm water                                                       About 1 ½ cups
Sesame seeds (optional)                                    2 teaspoons

Procedure:

Add salt to flour, mix well.

Dissolve jaggery in about ¼ cup of water. Heat this to a lukewarm temperature.  If you take honey, add lukewarm water to it and stir well.

Add dry yeast granules to this and mix well.  Allow it to rise. It takes about 15-20 minutes to rise.

Next add this to the flour and mix well.

Now add required amount of warm water and mix well. Let the consistency be a bit softer than the flour you mix for making chapathis. Now you have to knead this very well. The more you knead, the more it rises. I knead it for about ten minutes. 

After kneading, cover it with a warm cloth, keep it in a warm place and allow it to rise. If the room temperature is not warm, I keep this in the oven and turn the oven on to about 20 degrees Celsius and leave it for 2 to 3 hours. The flour should rise to nearly three times that of the original size.

Baking:

Keep a greased baking trey ready.

Now knead the flour again for one or two minutes. Better dip your hand in water once before you start kneading since the flour might stick to your hand and make it difficult to knead. Now roll the flour with hand to fit into the trey and then transfer this to the trey. 

Now again cover with warm cloth and allow it to rise in the trey for about half an hour.

Next sprinkle sesame seeds uniformly on the flour. These seeds give a good taste to the bread when they get roasted during baking. 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius for five minutes. Bake for about 25 minutes at this temperature.

To check if the bread is done, insert a knife in the middle of the loaf. If it comes out clean it means that it is done. To check further, take out the trey and knock on the bread lightly with fingers. If it gives a hollow sound, it means the bread is done.

Now reverse the trey and transfer the loaf to a plate. Wrap the bread with wet cloth for about 10 minutes so that the bread crust doesn’t get hard.

Cut the bread to slices when cool.

TOTAPURI MAVINAKAI/MANGO CHUTNEY

Mango season is never complete without this mouth watering chutney. This tastes great with hot rice, and tastes wonderful with a dash of ghee! Goes well  also with chapathi and even bread. For those who have tasted it, the very name and the look or even a picture of it makes them salivate for sure!

This  chutney can be prepared in bulk and stored during the season. It can stay in the fridge for months. It is very easy to make too.

It is a good idea to use fresh, hard, raw totapuri mango to make this chutney.  So, when  you buy you better select the correct ones.

The other  variety of mango used to make pickles is very sour compared to totapuri variety and so making chutney with the former requires more quantity of jaggery. So totapuri is best suited to make this.

Ingredients:

Grated raw totapuri mango                                       2 cups

Salt                                                                           2 teaspoons

Red chili powder                                                       2 teaspoons ( I use byadagi)

*Bella/jaggery/gud  syrrup                                        ½ cup

Menthya/Methi seeds

(Roasted and powdered)                                           1 level tablespoon

For seasoning:

Refined oil                                                                 4-5 tablepoons

Mustard seeds                                                          1 teaspoon

Turmeric                                                                   ¼ teaspoon

Ingu/asafoetida                                                         ¼ teaspoon

Procedure:

Peel and grate mangoes.

Heat oil in a thick pan. Add mustard seeds. When they sputter add turmeric and ingu and immediately add the grated mango.  Add salt and mix well. Cook this on a medium flame till mango turns a little brownish and leaves the sides of the pan.

Now add chili powder and jaggery syrup.   Stir well and cook till it thickens. Allow it to cool to room temperature. Store in bottles.

*Jaggery syrup: It is better to use  jaggery syrup than use jaggery directly because it contains sand particles. To make the syrup, take one cup of powdered jaggery,  add  water just to cover it and bring to boil. When it gets completely dissolved, decant and pour the syrup to another container. Boil the solution to get one string consistency.

A suggestion: An approximate quantity of ingredients to be added is given in the ingredients list.  In case of any such chutney, it is a good idea to taste a little bit of this when done, and add whatever extra  quantity of the ingredient you like to add. Depending on how you want it to taste-  spicy, sour or sweetish you can alter the quantity of ingredients.

MAJJIGE HULI/PALADYA

This is a slightly sour dish made with butter milk (thin curds) and vegetables. Some like to have it as a combination with  thick ‘tovve’ ( a thick huLi/sambar), Togari nucchinunDe, etc. but it can be had with plain rice also. Only a few selected vegetables are used for this, like pumpkin, chow chow, snake gourd and sometimes even peas.

Ingredients:

Any of the above mentioned Vegetables              1 cup, cut into ½” - 1” inch cubes

Salt                                                                       1 teaspoon

Curds thick                                                            ½ cup

Water                                                                     ½ cup              

           

To be ground into paste:

Grated coconut                                                      ½ cup

Chilies                                                                    1 or 2

Ginger                                                                    1” piece

Cumin                                                                    1 level table spoon

Gram dal                                                                1 tablespoon (to be soaked 1 hour before grinding)

For seasoning

Oil                                                                           1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds                                                        1 teaspoon

Curry leaves                                                            5-6

Turmeric                                                                  1 pinch

Ingu (asafoetida )                                                    1 pinch

Procedure:

Take oil in a pan. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they sputter add curry leaves, ingu, turmeric and add vegetables. Add half a teaspoon of salt and cook. I prefer half cooked vegetables. If you wish you can cook till soft.

While the vegetable is getting cooked, grind the mentioned ingredients into fine paste. You can add a little water while grinding.

When the vegetable is cooked, add the ground mixture, the remaining half spoon of salt and boil. Add about half a cup of water if you find it very thick. Let it boil for two or three minutes. Keep stirring so that it doesn’t get burnt.

Allow it to cool.

Beat the curds well with a whisk, add water and stir well.  Pour this into the pan and mix well.

Majjige huli is ready to serve.

Note: Add  curds only when the contents of the pan are cooled and do not heat the ready majjige huli to high temperature. Hot temperature makes the curds get curdled. So you can just warm it.

TOGARI NUCCHINUNDE (A Tur dal recipe)

Togari nucchinunde, a specialty of Karnataka, is a wonder dish made of togari bele/tuvar dal. The name of the dish implies that they are balls made of broken tur dal. Probably in olden days, when there was no the concept of supplying cleaned togari bele, grocery shops supplied  one which was a mix of whole and broken togari bele.  So, while cleaning and separating them some innovative lady must have found a unique way to use this broken bele and created this dish. Now that clean bele is available, the dish is made by soaking and grinding the whole togari bele.   It is one of the main dishes of a Karnataka meal, but made comparatively rarely. This is a protein rich, steam cooked dish and so is a very healthy dish. Very filling also. Though it is an item of main meals, it can also be used as a snack. Usually it is accompanied by another dish, majjige huli/paladya.

Ingredients

Togaribele/Tur dal                                            1 cup

Water                                                               3 cups

Salt                                                                  1 teaspoon

Ginger grated                                                  1 tablespoon

Ingu/asafoetida                                                3 or 4 pinches

Green chilies                                                    2-3

Grated coconut                                                1 cup

Menthya soppu/methi finely chopped              2 cups

Procedure:

Soak  togari bele in water for 3-4 hours.  Transfer to a colander and drain completely. See that no water remains.

Grind , ginger, green chilies, salt and ingu to a coarse paste without adding water. Then add grated coconut and run the mixer just for a few seconds so that it mixes well with the ground togari bele mixture.  Add finely chopped menthya soppu and mix well.

Now take one small fistful of the ground mixture and make balls as shown. Take a steel plate which has holes, smear with oil and arrange the balls in the plate. If you don’t have such plate you can arrange them in idli stand as shown. 

Now heat water in a pressure cooker. Place a steel ring or any other narrow vessel in the cooker. When water starts boiling, place the plate in the cooker, cover the cooker lid and steam for 10 minutes and turn off the flame. If you use idli stand, follow the same procedure.

Leave for five minutes and transfer the balls into a box.  

Serve hot with ghee and  majjige huli.

You can to eat the balls just with ghee, or mix with only rice or mix with rice and majjige huli, both.

Usually majjige huli a south Indian version of kadhi, has  in it vegetables like pumpkin, chow chow, snake gourd etc. But one used as an accompaniment of  Togari NucchinunDe can be made plain without vegetables too.

Note: One cup of  togari bele yields about 15 pieces of the dish. Serves 4-5

MENTHYA/ METHI / FENUGREEK SPROUTS SALAD

Menthya sprouts??!! How can one eat these bitter seeds?? I know, this is the reaction of whoever has not tasted this salad! But, it is a wonderful tasting salad, very good for health too. You have to eat this to believe it! Preparing this easy too, but needs a little bit of advanced planning because I have noticed that these seeds take more time to sprout compared to our usual green gram sprouts. I can say, you soak it approximately 2 days before you plan to make this.

I am sure you would love the lovely flavour of Menthya minus its bitterness.

You need to take:

Menthya/Methi seeds                            ½ cup

Water                                                     2 cups

Salt                                                        ½ teaspoon

Lemon juice                                           1 teaspoon

Grated carrot(optional)                          2 or 3 tablespoons

Grated coconut                                      2 tablespoons

Peanuts crushed                                    2 or 3 tablespoons

For seasoning:

Oil                                                          2 teaspoons

Mustard seeds                                       1 teaspoon

Black gram                                             2 teaspoons

Ingu/ asafoetida                                     2 pinches

Curry leaves                                           3 or 4, cut into pieces

Green chilies chopped                           1 teaspoon 

Coriander leaves chopped                     2 tablespoons

Procedure:

Soak menthya seeds overnight in water. Next morning drain it completely and store in a plastic box and keep in a warm place. It is a good idea to toss it once or twice a day . So, better keep it in such a place that you notice it whenever you enter the kitchen or else you may forget it :) . By next day, you can see small sprouts shooting out. Leave it for one more day or two, tossing it, till the sprouts are about 3mms. long.  

Or

You can even tie the soaked seeds in a thin cloth. You can just open twice a day and check if they have sprouted.

When  ready, sprinkle salt  and keep aside.

Roast peanuts and crush them to small pieces and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard. When it sputters, add black gram  and fry till golden brown. Add  cut curry leaves, chopped green chillies, ingu, one tablespoon of coriander leaves and fry for a few seconds. Add in sprouted menthya. Add  salt and mix well. Simmer the flame and leave for about two minutes, stirring in between. Mix in grated carrot and turn off the flame. Add lemon juice. Mix well and then add roasted peanuts and grated coconut  and mix well.  Garnish with rest of chopped coriander.

HESARU KAALU- MOONG SPROUT

Sprouted moong is a very common item in our kitchens as an ingredient to make salads, as you know.  Since it is such a healthy food item, I was just  wondering how to make a more interesting salad out of it.  Most important for me was that the raw smell of the sprout should go. So I tried this method and it so happened that the consistency of the sprouted moong also changed for better! So, try this. I am sure you will love it!

Ingredients:

Sprouted moong                                     1 cup

Salt                                                         1 teaspoon                              

Roasted peanuts                                    1 tablespoon (crushed)

Grated carrot(optional)                           1 tablespoon

Grated coconut                                       1 tablespoon

Lemon juice            

                             

For seasoning:

Oil                                                           1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds                                        1/2 teaspoon

Ingu/hing/asafoetida)                              1 pinch

Green chily                                             1 (finely cut)

Coriander leaves                                    1 tablespoon (chopped)

Procedure:

Heat oil in a  kaDai. Add mustard seeds. When they sputter add cut chilies, hing and chopped coriander leaves. Join in the sprouted moong and salt, and immediately turn off the flame. (By doing so, the moong stays crisp and this is what gives that special consistency for the dish). Stir well. Keep the kaDai closed for a few minutes. When cool add grated carrot, coconut, crushed peanuts and lemon juice and mix well. The dish is ready to serve!

By just doing this, the raw smell of the moong disappears and you can consume four times the usual quantity that you consume  This can even be more of a `between meal' very healthy snack than just a salad. Usually in mixed vegetable salads, the the proportion of sprouted moong is about one fifth  the quantity of vegetables. Here you may or may not use vegetables- choice is left to you!

A rare combination of nutrition and good taste :)

Try now!

PUMPKIN BREAD

This is the recipe I got from the land lady of the chalet amidst red wood trees, where we stayed during our Yosemite National Park trip. To welcome us to her holiday home, Ms.Debby had brought for us this hot,  freshly baked bread with an  appetizing aroma . The bread tasted just wonderful. I requested her for the recipe and it is really nice of her to share it with me. I baked it. It came out really great! You must try this. Cake recipes  usually have maida/flour as the main ingredient, but now a days I use it whole wheat flour. Cakes turn out quite well

You need:

Maida/whole wheat flour                                                 1 ½ cups

Sugar                                                                               1 ¼ cups

Egg                                                                                  1

Butter                                                                              ¼ cup

Cold milk                                                                         ½ cup

Baking soda                                                                     1 teaspoon

Baking powder                                                                 ¼ teaspoon

Pumpkin puree                                                                 ¾ cup

Salt                                                                                   ¼ teaspoon

Ginger grated/powder                                                      ½ teaspoon           

Clove ground                                                                   ½ teaspoon

Cinnamon ground                                                           1 teaspoon

Chopped nuts, preferably walnuts                                   ½ cup                      

Procedure:                   

To make pumpkin puree:

Take thin slices of pumpkin (sihi kumbaLakai) and microwave for 2 or 4 minutes till it is half cooked. Blend coarsely in a mixer.  If you need 3/4 cups of puree, you need to take about 1 1/2 cups of sliced pumpkin. Cooked pumpkin looks like this.

For the rest of the recipe:

Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger powder, clove powder powder and cinnamon powder. (If you take grated ginger, beat together with egg, butter etc.).


Now, beat the butter and sugar, preferably with an electric hand mixer. Add egg and beat well. Now add cold milk and pumpkin puree and blend very well. Blend in chopped nuts.

Pre heat the oven for about  5 minutes.

Add the sieved flour mixture to the egg mixture and blend them together. Pour the mixture into a 8" loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.  Test whether the baking is complete by inserting a knitting needle or a knife in the middle of the bread. If the batter sticks to the needle, it means that the baking is not complete. Bake again for 5 or 6 minutes more. When done, cool to room temperature before cutting.

Now, ENJOY!!!!

DHOKLA

As you know, this is a Gujarathi dish. If I am right, the original recipe is one in which mixture of dals is used. That requires a little planning and also time. (Plan to post it some time later)! But this is a very quick method and the ingredients except Eno's fruit salt are always available at home. But you can always keep a stock of  a few 5gm. sachets of fruit salt at home.  Fruit salt comes in different flavours, but take care to buy the `regular'  one which  suitable for this. It is available in all medical shops and for those who live outside India,  it is available in Indian Stores. It is important to check the expiry date.

A very tasty, protein filled, non greasy, healthy and any time snack! If you come to know about the arrival of your guests three to four hours in advance, you can make and keep this ready!

So, here are the

Ingredients:

KaDale hiTTu or besan                                          3/4 cup
Chiroti rava                                                            1/4 cup
Sour curds                                                              About 3/4 to 1 cup
Thick tamarind paste                                             1/2 spoon (to be used if the curds is not sour)
Ginger                                                                    1 teaspon (finely grated)
Green chillies                                                         1 or 2 (finely cut)
Turmeric                                                                 1 pinch
Sugar                                                                      1 teaspoon
Eno's fruit salt                                                        5gm (1 sachet)
Salt                                                                         1 level teaspoon

For garnishing:

Oil                                                                           1-2 teaspoons
Mustard                                                                   1 teaspoon
Grated coconut                                                        2-3 table spoons
Coriander leaves                                                      2-3 table spoons (finely chopped)
Ingu/hing/asafoetida                                                2-3 pinches teaspoon    



Procedure:

Mix besan, chiroti rava, salt, turmeric, salt, ginger, green chilies and sugar together. Add curds and mix well till you get a consistency of idli batter. Remember to add tamarind paste if  curds is not sour. Leave it for about three hours. (If you are short of time, you can leave it just for 1 1/2 to two hours).

 Grease a 4"-6"  flat aluminium/steel pan.

Heat water in a pressure cooker on a high flame.  Keep a steel ring or a narrow container to give a bit height to place the pan. Wait till water starts boiling.

Now, the next step is to be done a bit quickly. Cut open the fruit salt sachet and quickly sprinkle over the above mixture.  You can see bubbles of gas (carbon di oxide) coming out. Now stir the contents well very quickly with a spatula and pour it into the greased pan.  It is good to finish the whole process within one minute. Now place the pan in the pressure cooker, close the lid and wait till steam starts coming out uniformly. Then steam it for about 10 minutes on a medium flame. Turn off the flame.

Allow the contents to cool for about half an hour. Take a knife around the Dhokla to make sure that the sides of the Dhokla is not sticking to the wall of the pan. Now reverse the pan on a plate and pat its base.  Transfer it the plate. 

Now your  Dhokla is ready!

Garnishing:

Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When the seeds  sputter, add ingu.  Spread this uniformly on the Dhokla.

Spread grated coconut and chopped coriander.

The Dhokla is ready to serve. Tastes great when hot.

This is usually served with tamarind chutney and or coconut chutney. But if you have enough of salt and chillies, I dont find the need of these.

SPICY CRISPY CAULIFLOWER SABZI (a quick recipe)

Got bored with same old recipes to make cauliflower sabzi. I tried gobi manchurian type masala. Turned out to be quite easy and tasty. It is very quick also.

I used:

Cauliflower                                            1 kg.
Garlic                                                     7-8 cloves, finely cut
Green chilies                                         3-4, finely chopped
Coriander leaves                                   about 1/2 cup finely chopped
Salt                                                        1/4 teaspoon
Tomato ketchup                                     1 cup
Oil                                                          1 tablespoon

Method:

Wash and cut cauliflower into small florets. Sprinkle salt and microwave for 2-3 minutes till half cooked, tossing once or twice in between.

Heat oil in a pan.  Add cut garlic and fry till brown. Now add cut chilies, stir and after about 10 seconds and tomato ketchup. Once it starts boiling add florets of cauliflower, mix well and cover with a lid.  After one minute add chopped coriander leaves, turn the contents again, cover with lid and turn off the stove. After about five minutes turn the contents again. The sabzi is ready.  The florets are still crispy and ready to serve.

HALASANDE KAALU and SOPPU `MUDHPALYA'

Protein packed dish which goes well both with rice and chapatis. Very easy to make. Got bored of usual stuff and tried this and came out well.

You need:

Halsande kaaLu(bharbhati/lobia)                1/2 cup
Togari beLe (Tuvar)                                    1/4 cup (mainly to get thick palya)
DanTu/Chakota/Palak                                  3 cups (finely chopped)
Salt                                                              1 teaspoon
Tamarind extract                                          1/2 spoon if thick
HuLi puDi(sambar powder)                        1 teaspoon
Grated coconut                                             1/2 cup
Oil                                                                1 teaspoon
Ingu (hing)                                                     1 pinch
Turmeric                                                        1 pinch
Curry leaves                                                  about 10
Jaggery                                                          1 teaspoon (optional)

How to make:

Soak halsande kaaLu and togari beLe for 2-3 hours.  Pressure cook till soft.
Cook greens.
Take oil in a kaDai, heat it. When hot add mustard. When it sputters, add ingu, curry leaves, turmeric and then add the cooked kaaLu and beLe, cooked greens, salt, tamarind juice, huLi puDi, jaggery and grated coconut.  Mix well and bring to boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes and turn off the stove.  Mudpalya is ready to serve or to eat :)

I enjoyed this with hot rice. Why don`t you try soon and let me know it came out?

PS: You can use other pulses like hesaru kaLu (whole green moong)

RAVE UNDE / RAVA LADDOO

As you know, this is actually an ancient dish! I vaguely remember  that my ajji, i.e.your thatha's mother, used to make tiny unDes specially for me and place one in each of my three year old  tiny hands, since  they say I used to ask for two pieces every time!

The procedure is very simple and  the ingredients are almost always readily available on the South Indian kitchen shelves. That is the reason the ladies those days prepared this in no time if the guests were to arrive within a short notice.

So, here are the ingredients:

Chiroti Rava                               1 cup
Sugar                                          1/2 cup
Grated coconut                           1/2 cup
Ghee                                           2-3 table spoons
Water                                          Enough to cover sugar in the kaDai
Cardamom powder                    1/4 teaspoon
Cashew nut pieces                     1-2 tablespoons
Raisins                                        1-2 tablespoons

Optional:


How to proceed:

Take about a teaspoon of ghee in the kaDai and fry cashew nuts till golden brown and raisins till they bloat. Transfer them to a small bowl.

Take  the remaining ghee in the kaDai and when it melts add both the rava and grated coconut and roast till the rava turns golden brown and the rava together with coconut give a pleasant aroma. Transfer the contents to the same bowl.

Next take sugar in the kaDai, add water just enough to cover it, and bring to boil till you notice foaming of the syrrup. Turn off the burner. Add cardamom powder, mix well and then transfer the contents of the bowl to the kaDai and mix well.  When the mixture is cool enough for you to handle, take small portions and make balls. Store in an airtight container. Can stay fresh for about a week.

From this amount you can make about 10 balls.  Enjoy!

PARANGI KAI ( RAW PAPAYA) CHUTNEY

My daughters  liked this sweet-hot chatni I used to make out of  parangi kai or thothapuri mavinkai (thothapuri raw mango).  I had learnt this when I attended the course on fruit preservation conducted by The Ministry of agriculture in Bhopal 35 years ago.

But nowadays  raw papayas have become a rarity since nobody grows the trees in their garden (and garden  itself has become a rarity),  and they are rarely available in shops.  Even papaya vendor has failed to get one for me. But last week I was lucky to get one unexpectedly from a cousin who offered one to me  which she had grown in her  garden.  I was quick  enough to grab it and was equally quick to make this chutney. You can try this if you a can get a papaya or make this with raw mangoes during the season.

This is how a fully raw papaya looks when cut. You have to choose one like this. So shall I go ahead with the ingredients and procedure?

Ingredients:

Raw papaya                   1 kg
Sugar                             1 kg
Onion                            50 gms ( 1 medium sized)
Garlic                            5 gms (4-5 pods)
Ginger                           20 gms.
Salt                                20gms.(2 1/2 teaspoons)
Red chili powder          10 gms. (2-3  teaspoons)
Jeera powder                 1 teaspoon
Garam masala               5 gms or 1 teaspoon (made of cloves, cinnamon and cardomom)
Pepper powder              3/4 teaspoon
Citric acid                     1 teaspoon
Dry fruits                      50 gms (optional)
Glacial acetic acid        2 teaspoons
        OR
Vinegar                         1/2 cup
Water                            1 cup

Procedure:

Wash and peel papaya.  Grate it. Add grated onion, ginger or garlic.  Add water and cook till it becomes a bit soft. Or you can even microwave it for about  5 minutes. When soft, add citric acid, sugar, salt, red chili powder and dry fruits.  Cook till it thickens. Then add all the other spices and mix well. Remove from fire and add acetic acid.

Now a days I dont get acetic acid, so I use white vinegar which is dilute acetic acid.  So, if you add vinegar, there is still water content in this and so you have to boil till the end point.

To know the end point:

1.Best thing is to use a chemical thermometer. When the content reaches a temperature of 222 Degrees Fahrenheit or 105 degrees celcius,  you can remove it from fire.   OR

2. You can do what is called a plate test. Here add the contents on a plate and tilt it a bit. If the drops of liquid or syrup do not flow fast, it means that it is done.            OR

3. If the syrup has reached one string consistency, it means it is ready to be poured into bottles. 

How to fill in bottles:  After reaching the end point, note that the chutney still has liquid content in it.

Place wide mouthed bottles (eg.jam bottles) in a plate filled with water. Keep a long spoon in the bottle. Pour the hot chutney into the bottle immediately after removing fire. It is important that that the bottle is under water and has a spoon in it, since they absorb heat or else the bottles may break due to sudden exposure to heat. Fill to the brim. Place the lid over the bottles till the contents cool. Then close them tightly.

This chutney goes well with phulkas, chapatis, different types of dosaes, and even bread.  The chutney stays for a few months, even without refrigerating. From one kg of papaya, you can make about three bottles (usual jam bottles) of chutney.