Wash the ginger well. Scrape the skin as lightly as you can, using a knife with a serrated edge and breaking pieces to get into corners. Mince and set aside.

Mince also the green chillies. Note that you can adjust the quantity of green chillies based on how spicy they are—and how much spice you can tolerate. Decide now how much you want to add initially, and how much you can add in later.

Heat the ¼ cup of sesame oil in a heavy-bottomed, stainless steel pan until it's nearly smoking.

Add the minced green chillies and let them fry for a minute. Follow with the minced ginger; fry for another minute.

Now the tamarind water, removing, squeezing out, and discarding the pulp. Add the 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon of salt.

Let this cook on moderate heat until the tamarind’s raw smell and taste is gone. At this point, add the jaggery.

Allow to simmer for a few minutes and pause to check tastes. Adjust salt and sweet--but don't try to add more salt if it's sourness that's missing. Just mix in a bit more tamarind water in that case. (Yes, you may need to soak more tamarind for this, but you can allow your chutney to simmer while you get that ready. This is a very forgiving and patient chutney).

If you feel the puli-inji is lacking in spice, you can also just chop up and add a few more chilles at this point, too.

Once you have your tastes right, let the saucepan simmer until the mixture thickens slightly (5 minutes or so). It should be thick, but not quite as much as a jam.

In a separate pan, heat the 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. Drop in the hing/asafoetida and the teaspoon of mustard seeds. These should crackle right away -- then follow with sprigs of curry leaves.

Once the curry leaves crisp, pour the tempering over the puli-inji, mix and turn off the heat.

Allow to cool, bottle, and store in the ice-box for about a week to ten days.