Cashew Chutney & Onion Chutney

A cold and dreary day with much needed rain - I've learnt to appreciate rain a lot more after we moved her to well water - every mm counts. We have had several summers where water curfews were imposed when watering the lawn was an indulgence not to be exercised.  But a rainy day always makes me hungrier for some reason and I want to make something that warms the cockles - Steamed Sweet Potatoes was what I settled on - Hubby dear comes home and asks me what I plan to make with it - as a sort of spread - my mind sifts through the chutney spread files that are stored away in the brain, but I thought I'd make two chutneys - One I have made often - onion chutney and the other a variation of its more commonly prepared nut cousin, peanuts - And settled on cashews. Yes, that plan excited me. So I got to work and literally in 5-7 minutes, we were all smacking our lips after tasting this spicy, tongue-tickling oh-so nutty chutney - If you like nuts and cashews in particular, trust me my friends you will not be disappointed!

Here is the recipe
3/4 cup of roasted cashews
5 green chilies
2 red chilies (dried)
urad dal 1/4 cup
olive oil- 2 tsp
salt to taste
Tempering with olive oil (1tsp), mustard seeds and curry leaves

Preparation
I first used 2 tsp to roast the urad dal and the chilies, like we normally do for any chutney and then threw in the cashews for a minute before removing from flame.
I ground it warm in my Magic Bullet into a fine paste and tempered it

Spread this over your steamed sweet potatoes - while the chutney has a fine kick to it, it is beautifully set off by the sweetness of the sweet potato.

NOTE: the guilt of fat from the cashews can be lessened by the fact that you have had a most satisfying and completely healthy meal for I recently saw on Dr. Oz - Here is the quote from his website

Cashews are one of the top 4 anti-cancer Super foods! 

These nuts contain proanthocyanidins, a class of flavanolds that actually starve tumors and prevent cancer cells from dividing. In some studies, it’s been shown that eating 12 cashews a day can reduce your colon cancer risk.

There you go folks, the Ozacle has spoken :)

Onion Chuntey

1 med. sized red onion
4 red chilies
1 green chili
asafetida
olive oil 2 tsp
urad 2 tsp

Preparation
Fry in the oil all the ingredients and grind adding salt when you do.
Temper with the same ingredients as the above chutney

Enjoy mes amies.