The red lentil dal is paired with an aromatic quinoa, with kefir, hot fresh green chiles and the coconut-cocona chutney.
Dal makes it’s appearance here frequently, an easy and satisfying preparation that lends itself to a wide range of ingredients. Today’s is red lentils with carrots, purple sweet potato, chayote and asparagus beans. The “rice” is quinoa liberally spiced with coco oil-sizzled spices (cumin, mustard, cinnamon stick, and of course, cardamom) and a handful of ginger julienne.
Dotting the i is a new rendition of a classic coconut chutney in grated fresh firm coconut, chile, spices and the tart cubes of the cocona.
Recipe: Coconut-cocona Chutney
Summary: Firm coconut and cocona is lightly browned in spiced coco oil
Ingredients
- Meat of 2 firm-mature coconuts
- 2 T. coco oil
- 1 t. cardamom seed
- 3 sliced aji dulce chiles
- 1⁄4 C. chopped fresh ginger
- 1 C. diced cocona
- 1 t. salt
- 1 T. sugar
- 1 C. chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Scoop out the firm coconut meat, trim off all brown parts from the shell. Grate coarsely in a food processor.
- Prepare the cocona: slice off the stem end and peel the fruit with a vegetable peeler. Dice the fruit into 1⁄4″ pieces, ignoring the seeds.
- Heat coco oil, and when hot, add the chiles and cardamom. When the chiles brown a little, add the ginger, and heat it to a rapid sizzle.
- Add the grated coconut, and brown, taking care to keep the bottom of the pan scraped. When sufficiently browned, add the cocona, salt and sugar.
- Simmer for another 10 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Mix in the cilantro and it’s ready.
Variations
Normally, this recipe would use tamarind; so you can use tamarind paste instead of cocona, (admittedly hard to find…) but it will be a lot less–like 1⁄4 cup.
Microformatting by hRecipe.
