Regi palla Pachadi/Ber chutney/Elachi hannu chutney

Regi pandu is wild berry grown and abundantly available in India. Called Indian jujube or Indian plum in English (ref: wikipedia), ber in Hindi, elachi hannu in kannada, ilanthai pazham in tamizh, these are used as bhogi pallu to be showered onto kids during the sankranti festivities in Andhra and Karnataka. These are also distributed with yellu bella among relatives and friends on sankranti day.

Regi pandla pachadi or chutney is a traditional recipe and a regular at home during this season. We have though seen this only at home and heard of it only from amma.

Preparation time: 20-30 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Regi pandlu (ber) ¼kg
Green chillies 2-4
Refined cooking oil 4tsp
Mustard seeds ½ tsp
Red chillies 2
Black gram (urad dal/uddipappu) 1tsp
Curry leaves 4-5
Fresh and chopped Coriander 2 tsp
Pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and wipe dry the regi pandlu with a clean towel.

In a few drops of oil, fry the green chillies and set aside to cool.

Deseed the regi pandlu. They will anyway get cut in the process. In fact this is what takes most of the preparation time as the fruits are small in size and deseeding is a must.

The actual traditional method is to beat hard and mash the regi pandlu, greenchillies and salt to taste by hand. This gives it an exemplary taste. This is how amma makes it even till date.

However, now days neither the rotu is available nor do we have the patience for doing it. So instead, we use the dry mixie. Add the regipandlu, green chillies and salt to taste and coarse grind in the dry mixie. When flakes of regipandlu touch the toungue, we do get the taste and smell of the fruits psychologically.

In a kadai/pan (bandli/mookudu), heat 4 tsp oil. Add mustard seeds, red chillies, black gram,curry leaves,coriander leaves, pinch of asafoetida and fry. Once the seasoning is done, add the above ground regipandla mix and stir till it feels like a paste and cooked.

Regi pandla pachadi is done. Sweet and tangy because of the fruit it contains, spicy with the green chilles , regi pandla pachadi is a rice supplement. We did try it as a spread on brown bread and it did go well there too. Regi pandla pachadi however, tastes better almost 6-8hrs after it is made. So incase it is for dinner, make it in the morning and set aside in a cool and dry place.