Raw Rocks from Bharath ~ Coconut Pacchadi
On New Year’s, some break champagne bottles and we break coconuts. Traditional welcome always comes in the form of coconut for us. Coconut is highly valuable in our culture. A culinary chameleon, coconut not only symbolizes life but it also sustains the jeevam.
And this is what I’ve prepared with the Pooja coconut for our meal today – A sharp pacchadi. Surely this must be the most popular of all from Southern India where it is served over steamed rice or with dosa. This pacchadi is often recommended to those whose appetite needs a flavor boost. And who doesn’t in this mind numbing cold weather?
(serves 2 or 4 for 2 or 1 meal)
Fresh coconut, grated – about 2 cups
Shallot or red onions, chopped – about 1/2 cup
Green chillies, Indian or Thai type – 6 to 8
Tamarind pulp – 2 tablespoons
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Take coconut, onion and chillies in a Sumeet style mixer or in a mortar. Add tamarind and salt. Blend or pulverize to coarse paste without adding any water. Remove to a cup. Serve with rice and dal or with breakfast items like dosa, idly, and pongal etc.
Coconut Pacchadi prepared in this way does not keep very well for storage more than a day because it’s a ‘Raw Rocks’ kind of Bharath recipe, and must be eaten fresh.
Coconut Pacchadi in a Coconut Shell ~ Celebrating ‘Raw Rocks’ in 2010
Love pacchadi and yes we prefer to have these “on the rocks” instead of champagne too 😉
Sounds delicious! Happy New Year:)
I have never tasted this combo. It would b usually coconut+green chillies+pottu kadalai. This sounds truly delicious. Amma makes a similar version with roasted urad dal+coconut+tamarind and red chillies. This coconut chutney would taste divine with hot idlis I believe Indira! And as a dip for some chips…wow!
Happy new year..yum of coco chutney
On New Year’s, some break champagne bottles and we break coconuts…LOVELY!!!
Great pachadi, Amma made them without the onions. Would love to try and have them with hot rice.
nicely presented. Love your choice of words “culinary chameleon” 🙂
Dear Indira,
Wish you a Very Happy New Year.
You have no idea how much your website has been a part of my life over the last couple of years. About 80% of my regular dishes are from your website. They are simple dishes but very inspirational. I quote your websites to all my friends and family.I have a lot of favs from ur site. Like palak paneer,dum aloo,bisebelabath,pongal,poli,semiya payasam,etc.. I have made them several times. I am especially fond of the traditional dishes you dish out.
You should so come out with a cookbook. I would definitely buy it.
I’ve been a lurker for all these years but I thought I should tell you how much your website is part of my life.
Regards,
Vidya
Happy New Year Indira
Looks lovely! i have to try it out
Really lovely photo, Indira — with coconut and onion and chiles. Reminds me of the blogging days of yore 🙂
Happy new year too lovely chutney
Simple and yum chutney….
Looks yummy!! I am from Kerala and we call it vella chammanthi ( white Chutney ), this we even make it like normal chutney.
Simple and easy to make.
Wishing you all a Happy Pongal!
Dear Indira, Happy Pongal to you. I just posted Sweet pongal recipe on my blog and thought of coming here. This coconut pachadi is so unique! I am going to try it this weekend.
Anupama
Dear Indira, We make this at our home too, except we add a bit of water to hold it all together. ‘Thengai thuvaiyal’ is what we call it. Glad you like it as well. Happy new yr and happy pongal as well! 🙂
yummy
Hi Indira,
I am so, so happy to have found your website, thanks to another favorite food blogger, http://tigressinapickle.blogspot.com/. I love this recipe in particular, because I used to live in Los Angeles, and my favorite dosa place served a similar coconut chutney, which I loved, and never learned to make. I now live in a small town where Indian food is harder to find, so I am really excited to make not only this pacchadi, but so many of your other recipes. They look amazing, and boy, is my husband going to be thrilled. Perfect food to warm up our snowy days! Thank you!
Need to try this. I never add Tamarind pulp to coconut chutney. Yumm..
HI indira,
I hope u dont mind asking me a totally unrelated question. I had been trying to make dosa since a long time. I have followed all the steps accurately. My problem is when I spread the batter on to the skillet, I cant seem to spread it like u do. As soon as I put the batter on the skillet, it seem to get cooked.I cant seem to get it to spread. Even on low heat, I dont seem to be able to get the ring or the whorl pattern.Kindly help.
Thank you
Hi! I am new to blogging and have recently been visiting your blog…love the pics n recipes!!
My last post on my blog was “Rava Pongal”…I was just thinking that this pachadi you have here would be a great accompaniment for it…I wonder if I should mention that in my post:))
Hi Indira, I am from Kerala and we make similar coconut chutney all the time at home. It can be made either with or without onion, dry like this, or more commonly, ‘looser’ with water. We don’t usually add tamarind. A different version is to add dry red chillies instead of green, so it will be a a nice light orangish color. We malayalis love coconut, cannot do without it. When we eat outside, the restaurants are graded on how their coconut chutney is, not how dosa/idli taste like.:-)
i tried this as an accompaniment to horsegram dosai – it was awesome and i have already started spreading this recipe to my family and friends, thanks a ton………
Hi Meera,
Glad to know that you tried and liked this recipe. Thanks for the feedback.
-Indira