Chutney: everything you need to know about India’s favourite condiment, from an expert who learned at her grandma’s side

There’s a particular kind of reverence associated with the word chutney in Indian cuisine. It came to me through witnessing my grandmother and mother in the kitchen, cooking up a dozen or so varieties. Growing up in Karnataka, in South India, I have a love for coconut, one of the key ingredients in chutneys here.

A chutney in Karnataka is employed in myriad ways – as a side dish for breakfasts of idli or dosa, as a dip for starters such as deep-fried vadas or bondas, or as a condiment in a full-fledged midday meal, to be mixed and eaten with hot rice and ghee.

My fondest memories are of watching my maternal grandmother cook in her old-fashioned ranch-style house. She would be hunched over the grinding stone, known locally as oralu kallu, throwing in all manner of shallow-fried lentils, coconut, tamarind pulp and other ingredients, depending on the meal of the day and the mood, grinding it all into a sizeable mass of chutney.

She’d also magically transform something that many disliked – such as beetroot – into a delectably flavourful chutney. She’d always top her chutneys withmustard, cumin, black gram, curry leaves and lots of asafoetida, all of which were tempered – fried with a little oil – to add even more flavour to the dish.