Methkut(Dry Chutney Powder)

Time: 60 minutes

Serves: 150 tsp

This time when I was on vacation to India, I learned many different recipes from relatives. India is just home of relish foods, you just have to be hungry for cooking and having exotic food. Here I am giving authentic "Methkut" recipe,one of other recipes, which I learned from my mother-in-law. She gave me different superb ideas to make simple food tastes heavenly.

In the old days, this would be ground on a hand-turned Grinding Stone. This activity took place in the afternoons. The key behind making authentic Methkut is roasting all ingredients well. This is eaten as chutney; 1 tsp of methkut mixed with 1 tsp of clarified butter(ghee) or 1 tsp of yogurt(curd). Here I am giving her(my mother-in-law's) Recipe but somehow Food tasted better then!!!!.

Ingredients:

12 gms Lump of Asafoetida(Hing) ( 1 Tola - This is Maharashtrian measurement unit )

667 gms Chana Dal (1 Mapat - This is Maharashtra measurement unit 1.5 mapat = 1kg)

1 cup White Urad(Black Beans,hulled)Dal

1/2 cup White Rice

1/2 cup Whole Wheat Grains
1/2 cup Yellow Mung Dal
1/2 cup Vatana dal (split dried white peas)
1/2 cup Masoor dal(Lentil)
1/2 cup Tovar dal
1/2 cup Coriander seeds(or 1 small cup)

1/2 cup Cumin Seeds(or 1 small cup)

1 cup salt to taste

2 tsp Red Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds(Methi)
2 tsp Black pepper(Mire)

1 small stick Dried Ginger(Soonth)

12 Cloves(Lavang)
7 whole Green Cardamoms(Hirvi Velchi)
1 stick 2" Cinnamon Bark(Dalchini)
2 stick of Dry Turmeric(Halkund)

15 Dry Red Chillies


Method:

1. Start from Asafoetida to Tovar dal one by one dry roast all separately on low flame till slight brown, crisp and fragrant. While Roasting Whole wheat grains, it time to stop roasting when its puffed and crackling.

2. While roasting spices be cautious as its tend to burn. So just roast for minute or two taking 2/2 items together and keep aside.

3. One all ingredients except salt roasted and cool Grind it together with salt to a fine Powder. In India we gave this roasted ingredient to flour mill(Girni)* where we get fine powder out of it.

4. If you don't find any flour mill out there and making at home using your own blender. Then grind all ingredients together to powder. Pass this grinded powder through a fine Sieve to separate the fine powder and grind the coarse grains again till all the ingredients are finely powdered.

5. Store in an airtight Jar and use an absolutely dry spoon to remove the powder, when needed.

6.Serve one or two spoon metkut mixed with curd or home made ghee(pure clarified butter). This is served with white rice, chapati, roti.

Note:

1. In India people usually eat a lot of wheat and other foodgrains in the form of chapatis, bhakaris, bread or idlis etc. All this items are made of flour, the best part is that people don't buy this flour readymade from stores; instead they grind foodgrains at home/ at flour mill using a GIRNI, a machine with 2 stone wheels placed on each other. The grains get grinded in between this stones to give out flour. Now a days this Girni's are replaced by their electrical counterparts which almost work on the same mechanics.