Semiserious Chefs

Indian cuisine is well known for its inclusion of chutney at nearly every meal. In Sri Lanka and Malaysia similarly flavored condiments go by the name sambal.

Chutney is actually a very ancient human food. The fermented type is a paste that can be kept for long periods of time, an early preservation method, where-as fresh chutney offers similar flavors and texture quickly and on demand. The word comes from the Sanskrit for ‘lick,’ and is traditionally made by grinding dried spices and fresh ingredients into a paste using a mortar and pestle or ammikkal. Sometimes with a base of fruit, sometimes chilies, sometimes green herbs, and/or any combination of the three, they can be sweet, spicy, sour, or anything in between.

Sambal refers to any number of similarly made condiment pastes specifically with chilies as the base.

Thus ‘coriander sambal’ is a chili paste/sambal made with coriander, while ‘cilantro chutney’ (kothmiri chatni) is a cilantro based paste/chutney that also includes chilies. Each of these pastes include the same ingredients: fresh cilantro/coriander, green chilies, ginger, and lime juice.

The only exception here might be that many South East Asian cooks would probably be inclined to include either dried shrimp or Spanish mackerel, and possibly grated coconut into this sambal. Though very traditional to Sri Lanka and Malaysia, this would not be as common in most of India. For my desired taste and ease I have kept it to just the basic ingredients listed above.

The last linguistic note is there are two other possible Indian names for this condiment: dhaninya chutney for ‘coriander’ and hari chutney for ‘green,’ though any number of ingredient combinations could fall under either of those names as well.

I highly suggest pairing this chutney/sambal with Green Gram Pesarattu (Moong Dal Dosa).

Cilantro Chutney (Coriander Sambal)

SemiSerious Chefs

Indian cuisine is well known for its inclusion of chutney at nearly every meal. In Sri Lanka and Malaysia similarly flavored condiments go by the name sambal. I highly suggest pairing this chutney/sambal with Green Gram Pesarattu (Moong Dal Dosa).

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Course accoutrements, condiment

Cuisine Indian

Servings 4

Equipment

• mortar and pestle or blender

Ingredients

  

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro (including stems)
• 1 inch hunk fresh ginger; peeled
• 2 whole bird's eye chilies OR 1 serrano chili
• 3 T lime juice
• 1/4 t sea salt

Instructions

 

• Use either a mortar and pestle or  blender, to combine all of the ingredients together into a paste.

Notes

If you find it too tart, a splash of oil (olive or coconut) can help cut the acidic-ness of this condiment.

Keyword chutney, condiment, sambal, spread