Indian Mint Chutney

Chutneys are common throughout the Indian subcontinent and this is another good one, featuring mint. As with other chutneys, there are variations to this recipe, with one variation being that some do not use yogurt, but use only water to make mint chutney.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup plain yogurt (Indian or Greek style yogurt, which are thicker, will make it more authentic)
3/4 cup fresh coriander
1  2/3 cups fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 serrano or jalapeno chili pepper, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1 tablespoon Indian curry powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt (or black salt, if you have it)*

Because everything will be processed/blended, the ingredients do not have to be uniformly chopped/cut. Add all ingredients into a blender/food processor and blend briefly to form more of a chunky paste.

* There are a few types of black salt, including one used in black magic and is not for consumption. Hawaiian black salt has charcoal mixed in. Indian black salt has a sulfur (British English: sulphur)  content. It is fairly commonly used in the cooking of the Indian subcontinent. Indian black salt is available in "some" supermarkets, "some" herb and spice shops, Asian shops or Indian/Pakistani product shops, as well as online. Both Hawaiian and Indian black salts are believed by some to have health benefits.

Mint chutney with some Indian style flatbread

WORD HISTORY:
Cummerbund-This is a compound word, with the first part going back to Indo European "khemm," which had the notion of, "bend, twist, curve." This gave Persian^ the transliterated "kamar," which meant, "waist" (get it? "curved part of the body"). The second part of this word, "bund," is related to "bind," "band" and "bound." It traces back to the Indo European root "bhendh," which had the notion of "tying up something." This gave transliterated Persian "band," "something that binds." The Persian compound was thus, "kamarband;" that is, "cloth that binds around the waist." This passed into Hindi and Urdu^^ as the transliterated "kamarband," and English borrowed the term in the early 1600s. German later borrowed the word from English as, "Kummerbund."

^ Persian is from the Indo Iranian branch of the Indo European family of languages. It is related to English, but much further down the family tree.

^^ Both Hindi and Urdu are Hindustani languages from the Indo-Aryan part of the Indo Iranian branch of Indo European. They are related to English, but much further down the family tree.