Coconut chutney (the way my mother makes it)

There are many, many ways of making coconut chutney, but this is the way my mother (and her mother before her) made it, and I am sticking to it. Normally, I skip the tempering, but I did it this time because I wanted a more authentic picture.

You need
One medium coconut grated
3 green chillies (more or less, according to taste- I normally use 2, but you might be better off with 3)
one ball of tamarind (about the size of a marble- be careful, because if you put too much, the colour will be a muddy brown)
[there are variations with added ginger (no tamarind), and roasted chana dal, but I haven't made either]
salt to taste

For seasoning
1/4 tsp mustard seeds/ rai/ sarson/ kaduhu
1 red chilli (to add flavour and colour only)
4-6 curry leaves
1/2 tsp chana dal or urad dal

Grind together grated coconut, green chillies and tamarind, with a small quantity of water. My cue for knowing when to stop grinding is to check if the green chilles are well ground and mixed. Take out into a bowl, and add salt as per taste.
In one teaspoon of oil, make the tempering with the mustard seeds, curry leaves, red chilli and dal. When the mustard seeds start to splutter, pour it over the chutney and mix well.

Cheat sheet-
Since nobody in my family is particularly fond of the tempering, I normally skip that step completely.
Grating coconut is a pain (unless I can get my kids to do it), so I normally cut the coconut into inch long pieces, and wet grind them with water, tamarind and green chillies- it takes a bit longer to grind, and you might find a few slivers here and there, but it is much easier and faster that way.