పచ్చి మిరప కాయి పచ్చడి- (Pacchi Mirapakaya Pacchadi)- Green Chilli Chutney

Serves: Fills a 1 lb bottle. Preparation time: 50 minutes including washing/cutting/assembling ingredients/cooking/grinding.

Ingredients:

2.5 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Mustard seeds (Rai, Avalu)
1 level tsp Fenugreek (Methi, Menti) powder
1 level tsp Asafoetida (Heeng, Inguva)
0.5 Kg- Green chillies

2 tsps Salt

4 tbsps cooked tamarind paste
1 heaped tsp Coriander (Dhania) seeds
1 heaped tsp Cumin (Jheera, Jilakara) seeds
1 tsp Turmeric (Haldi, Pasupu)

Method:
1. Wash and destem green chillies (No need to chop them as they will soften in cooking process and ultimately get ground. Indian chillies are best suited for this recipe. If using a large sized cultivar, you can chop them into large chunks.). Set aside.
2. Heat the oil, add the green chillies and fry until they brown.

3. Remove the chillies out of the oil and set aside. In that same oil, add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add fenugreek powder, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, asafoetida, turmeric and salt. Let the preparation cool.
4. Grind the spices & tamarind in the food processor, add the green chillies at the end & grind on pulse.
5. Bottle into a clean dry glass container and refrigerate. Takes upto four days for the flavours to blend in. 
I noticed that this chutney has a long shelf life if placed in the refrigerator, since chillies are highly alkaline.
It takes upto 4 days for the spices-chillies-tamarind-salt to marinate so that the flavours blend in, the pacchadi doesn't taste as nice when freshly made.
It is very yummy when eaten with fresh hot rice & ghee. It can also accompany upma, idli, dosa, pesarattu, anything as per our taste.

Precautions/Warnings/Variations:

1. The amount of spice to be added depends on how strong the green chillies are. The above are only estimates, very hot chillies may need more salt/tamarind/fenugreek/cumin/coriander, milder chillies may need less salt/tamarind. This is because these spices+chillies marinate & help to bring down the fieriness of the chillies.

2. If you don't have coriander & cumin seeds, you can use coriander & cumin powder.
3. If you don't have fenugreek powder: Roast fenugreek seeds until they are black-brown. Cool and powder. Add this pre-roasted powder to the recipe along with green chillies.
4. If you're making a huge quantity to store for longer time, more oil should be added so that there is a 'pickling' effect.
5. The last three ingredients (coriander, cumin and turmeric) are not traditional, I add them out of my own taste.
6. According to the traditional recipe, tamarind+salt paste is boiled separately and added to the cooled green chillies preparation just before grinding. I cooked the two together since that saves me space & time.
7. Do not taste much of it while preparing, it can cause severe acidity within seconds, and don't think this to be a dumb suggestion :-D


Useful Tip/Tricks:
It is an awesome spread for grilled sandwiches & savory snacks. It can be used as a ready-to-add spice sauce while preparing other dishes, half a spoon of this chutney lends awesome flavour.

Trivia:
I learnt this recipe from my mom-in-law (Indira aunty). Fiery green chilli pacchadi is truly the queen of all pacchadis.