Where to get Indian yoghurt mint sauce?

I need the Indian yoghurt mint sauce to counter the heavy flavour of indian spices I'm eating at the moment, and because I'm quite fond of it. My local indian shop doesn't appear to have this packaged in a pouch or in a can.

Where can I get some in Sydney?

 

open small tub of greek yoghurt. fling in general direction of a bowl, attempting to get as much into the bowl and as little on the floor/ceiling as possible.

obtain fresh mint (generally flogged in the vegie section of Woolies and Coles) and chop up about 2 slightly heaped tablespoons (I mean actual cutlery tablespoons) for a small pot of yogurt.

crush a single clove of garlic, or be lazy like me use half a teaspoon of bottled crushed garlic. stir in with teaspoon of lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar, and maybe 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

stir thoroughly and taste. you might like a bit more salt and cayenne, up to you.

if you're cooking with indian spices this should not prove a strain, and it tastes much better than prepackaged.

much the same thing can be also bunged onto pitas for making homemade kebabs, although some parsley goes nice in place of some of the mint there.

 

It's called Raita.

I make a very simple version of this to go with curry and it's great.

You just need some thick greek yoghurt, fresh mint, cucumber and a little bit of salt.

1. Chop up the mint finely
2. Peel the cucumber, then cut it in half and scoop out all the seeds with a spoon (the seeds are where most of the water comes from).
3. Grate the cucumber (preferably squeeze out the moisture of the cucumber after grating).
4. In a bowl, add the mint, yoghurt and cucumber and stir.
5. If required, add a bit of salt to taste. If you want you can also add a bit of lemon juice.

 

raita is very nice, but it's a different sauce again to mint yoghurt sauce.

if making raita, I suggest placing the grated cucumber in a sieve (line with kitchen paper if coarse) over a bowl for an hour or so to remove as much liquid as possible before adding. it's amazing how much liquid will come out. just patting it dry will result in a watery sauce, you need to drain it really, really well.

 

The other way to dry cucumber is sprinkle it with salt. Will also add salt to the raita.

 

I make a simple coriander and mint sauce sometimes (not raita). Just bash up some mint and coriander with a mortar and pestle and add some yogurt. Or you could chuck it in a blender I suppose.