Recipe for coriander thokku. Sweet and tangy kothamalli thokku Tamilnadu style. Perfect accompaniment for chapati and dosa. I even spread it on toast.
This is my mother in laws recipe for coriander thokku. Its sweet, spicy and tangy and is a perfect accompaniment for chapati and dosa. It is more like coriander pickle. I like to spread this on sandwiches too! It tastes great. Thokku on toast! Try it sometime. We call this coriander thokku as the Pethappampatti ketchup. Pethappampatti is my husband home town near Udumalpet. Its one of the must haves in the dining table during the season. Here is how to do it.
Clean and wash the coriander leaves and set aside. Young coriander leaves works well for this recipe. I have used around 250 grams of leaves for this recipe. Soak a golf ball size tamarind in a cup of water for 10 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind to release the pulp. Discard the fibre and the seeds. Set aside.
Take a mixie jar and add in the tamarind pulp, coriander leaves, salt, jaggery and dried red chillies. I like to use the gundu milagai or the Tamilnadu variety of chillies, the gundu chillies for this recipe. If you want a sweet thokku, you may add more jaggery (or) if you want a spicy thokku, add more chillies.
Grind to a smooth paste. Grind in batches if necessary.
Heat sesame oil (Indian gingely oil) in a pan until hot. Add in the mustard seeds and the asafoetida. Add in the ground paste.
I like to use SSP Asafoetida as the flavor and aroma is very strong and it adds a nice flavor to the dish. Here is where you may buy them.
SSP Powder Asafoetida
SSP Crystal Asafoetida (Granules)
SSP Ultra Powder Asafoetida
Keep the flame on medium. The thokku is going to splatter here and there. The stove is going to be a little messy. Heads up on that. The key is to keep sauteing all the time on a low medium flame. If the flame is too high, it will splatter more. So keep the flame low. The entire process will take about half an hour for this quantity of coriander thokku.
The thokku will slowly start to thicken and the colour will change. It will become darker and thicker. Keep sauteing.
The thokku is ready when it is really thick and resembles the consistency of Halwa.
Remove from pan and allow it to cool. Store in a glass jar.
The thokku stays good in the refrigerator for upto 20 days.
Keeping it real!!!!! The stove is going to be messy after all the splatter that happens. Cleaning the stove just after cooking the thokku makes for easy cleaning. If it dries out, it is going to take more time to clean. So clean immediately.
- 250 grams coriander leaves
- golf ball size tamarind
- ½ cup jaggery
- 15 dried red chillies (preferably gundu variety)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ¼ cup sesame oil (Indian gingely oil)
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
- Clean and wash the coriander leaves and set aside. Soak the tamarind and extract the pulp. Set aside.
- Grind all the ingredients listed under "to grind" to a smooth paste.
- Heat sesame oil (Indian gingely oil) in a pan until hot. Add in the mustard seeds and the asafoetida. Add in the ground paste.
- Add in the ground paste and keep stirring until the paste thickens and resembles Halwa consistency.
- Store in fridge.
Hi.. I had about 3 bunches of coriander and curry leaves and I was leaving out of station for a week. The simplest recipe of thookku I found was yours. I was skeptically cos things are harder in life right 😉 the end result was yummy!!! Even my 2 year old son said mummy konjam venum.. hehe.. thanks KannammaCooks
Thank you. Glad you liked it!