Sunday, November 1, 2009

Tomato chutney / pickle... any takers?

My parents were over.. the last few days.. dad makes this delicious tomato chutney cum pickle kind of a thing.. which i love.. i can positively have it with anything.. i was pestering him to make some for me this time again.. and then mom took over .. she wanted to make it for me.. but then i decided to learn it for myself.. i was especially motivated by the fact that unlike regular pickles.. this can be had almost instantaneously!!! So i told her to give me directions.. while i made the thing myself!!

1) Finely chop tomatoes (about 8-10 odd).
2) Heat oil in a pan (easily about 3 ladles.. more if you so feel when cooking)
3) Put a teaspoonful of mustard seeds, about 15-20 cloves of garlic chopped (you need to, rather your spouse / BF needs to live with your hand reeking of garlic), an inch of ginger chopped, about 2-3 green chillies (i used the big ones, so i assume 5-6 of small ones.. as per your palate), 6-7 curry leaves.. toss everything into the hot oil..
4) Once it browns a little (a little, not even a full minute, dont burn).. add the tomatoes and fry
5) Add a knob of tamarind.. cut / shred it as much as you can .. it will anyway dissolve mostly
6) Add salt (as per taste), red chilly powder (about 2-3 teaspoons, again as per taste)
7) Add a teaspoonful of powdered fenugreek seeds (sabut methi as we know it).. i crushed / ground it by hand.. using that thing.. that i am not able to remember the name of.. the hand powdering thing.. anyway, i am sure you know what i mean
8) Fry till tomatoes are done

Voila.. tomato chutney / pickle.. whatever you want to call it is ready!!! Besides normal food, it also tastes nice with mathri..

One more dish to add my culinary knowledge!!! :)

4 comments:

Scarlett said...

I love that tomato pickle your dad makes! Remember we used to have them whenever we came to your place for dinner? Rather, we came to drink/bitch & stayed over for dinner :)

Moonshine said...

lol.. i remember now that you mention it!! Those were the good times :)

the-mommie said...

Its called the mortar-pestle - recently learnt the name coz i need one here and just cannot find one heavy enough for my linking! So still at it with a belan and dangerous flying objects in the kitchen every time I want to kuto smthg! :D

Moonshine said...

Oh really.. though mortar does rign a bell :) Ask someone to bring it from here!!