Khatti Meethi Teekhi….IMLI KI CHUTNEY!
The most important ingredient in the Indian Chaat Menu, it can make or break the entire dish! That is why it’s extremely important to get the balance of flavors just right…the sweet sour and spicy or as we would say…
The khatta the meetha and the teekha!
So here I am sharing my mom’s age old tried n tested recipe to make this delicious chutney!
The best part of her recipe is that she cooks and reduces the chutney to a thick delicious concentrate so that it lasts for almost an year when refrigerated.
Whenever you plan a delicious chaat menu, all you need to do, is dilute the concentrate with some water..to make instant imli ki chutney and you are good to go!
To extract imli pulp…
Pressure cook dry imli..I used 2 big thai imli cakes, (the Thai variety) with about 8 cups water. Once cool strain and extract as much pulp as you can.
Or if you have the Vitamix, just remove all seeds from the pulp.
Then blend the dry imli with 10 cups warm water in your Vitamix…
till it resembles a smooth pulp. With the Vitamix, even the fibrous part of the tamarind, gets processed smooth. There is no need to go through the laborious process of straining the imli to extract the pulp.
For the spices…
You will need kala namak, red chilli pwdr, coarsely pound black pepper and coarsely pound roasted jeera powder.
To make the chutney concentrate…
Transfer the pulp to a cooking pot. Add salt, above mentioned spices and sugar according to your personal taste.
Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer the mix for about 25-30 minutes…
till it thickens and acquires a dark glossy look. Cool completely before transferring to airtight glass bottles. You have your imli chutney concentrate ready.
To make the chutney from the concentrate…
Just dilute concentrate with some water to thin flowing consistancy. Use with your fav Chaat, Dahi vada, Pakore!