Spicy Menasinakayi Raitha (Green Chilli Raitha)

Tiny darts of fire in my mouth....but  I don't want  to douse it. I am enjoying this ...thoroughly... simple pleasures can't get better than this I think. 'Swargakke Mooru Battu' ( 'Just 3 fingers away from heaven' in Kannada) Hmmm... Guess what I am eating?? One of my all time favorites, the spicy, spicy, spicy Menasinakayi Raitha with hot rice. There are so many days when I feel like eating a simple, satisfying meal of rice at home and yet not go the whole hog and cook a full fledged meal. The rice cooks in the pressure cooker while I make this raitha.
 
The entire family participates. Me by hogging it with rice like there is no tomorrow, my kids and hubby by gaping at me, punctuating the meal with 'Stop it, don't eat it anymore'. My kids and hubby don't venture to eat this and prefer the less spicy MTR Puliogare Mix with rice to this one. Just me - the brave-heart, gets to eat the whole thing - without any competition. Of course I make more so that I can eat it the next day again. With Chapatis..

If you want to eat a hot, fiery dish which will take you just 5 minutes to put together, try this out. You are guaranteed to enjoy this. And, just in case, don't forget to keep at hand a bottle of  antacid in your favorite flavor ready:-))

Ingredients:

5 medium sized green chillies, slit in between or chopped
1 tablespoon chopped coriander
A pinch of hing
Salt to taste
1 Cup fresh curd
2 tea spoons oil
1/2 tea spoon mustard seeds
1 tea spoon urad dal
Few curry leaves

Method: Heat one teaspoon oil in a pan. Keep the heat to medium. Add the slit green chillies. Saute till white spots appear on the chillies. Remove the chillies from the pan. Next add the chopped coriander and take the pan off the fire. Take care not to char or dry out the coriander. Add the hing. Once cool, grind the chillies, coriander and the hing till the mixture is coarse. You could also grind it till smooth if you do not wants bits of the chilli in your mouth.

Heat the remaining 1 teaspoon oil in the same pan and sputter the mustard seeds. Add the urad dal, carefully saute till done. Next add the curry leaves and fry till it becomes crisp. Lightly whisk the curd with salt. Add the ground mixture and the vaggarane (tadka) to the curd. Mix well.

Eat with hot rice and oil (Yes!!) or ghee. Goes very well with chapatis too. You can store this in the fridge for 2 days.

Variation : Use red raw chillies in place of the green ones. This is called as Hannu(Ripe) Menasinakayi Raitha.
 Please Note: The green chillies need to be slit as whole chillies will burst and that could be dangerous.
For a more fiery version, increase the number of chillies or reduce the amount of curd.