Versatile Tomato Thokku (a tangy, mildly spicy tomato preserve)

I'm leaving for Mumbai tomorrow, for over a week. While emptying my fridge, staring at me was a bag full of beautiful organic tomatoes that my aunt had carried all the way from Madanpalli. Certainly didn't want them to rot away and they were too precious to be  given away.

My options: puree the tomatoes and freeze or make some kind of a preserve that can be refrigerated. The second option definitely seemed so much more appealing. Here's what I did:

Cut up all the tomatoes into quarters and pureed them. Didn't bother to sieve as I prefer a chunky thokku to a pasty one. Then in my chopper, whizzed a couple of large pods of garlic, some birds eye chillies and a piece of ginger. set this aside. About 5 tbsp of this ginger - garlic - green chilli mixture. You can use as much as you wish to, depending on how hot you want the thokku to be.

Other ingredients used:

- 2 tbsp rasam powder - i used this because it is much more flavourful compared to plain red chilli powder.
- 4 tbsp rock salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp amchoor / dry mango powder
- 1 tbsp fenugreek / methi seeds

1 cup oil
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp jeera
1/4 tsp hing

a few sprigs of curry leaves.


you can also add 2 tbsp of 'menthyada hittu'if you have it handy. It lends some flavour, some paste like body, bringing the thokku together. Totally optional, though.
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First heated the oil and allowed the mustard to splutter. Added jeera, hing, curry leaves and the Ginger-garlic-chilli mixture and allowed it to become slightly cooked.

Then, the puree, and all the powder masalas, salt and sugar. Mix well and allow it to simmer away (without lid) for at least 45 minutes.

The thokku will turn a reddish brown and will separate itself from the oil. At this stage, take it off the flame, and allow it to cool completely before transferring to a glass, air-tight jar.

When refrigerated, this should stay for a few months, if it's not polished off by then, that is!

Once I tasted it, I realised that that it is such a versatile thokku -
> can be used as an instant mix for tomato rice / bhath /
> as a base for tomato rasam - just add dal and water and boil /
> can be added to subzis for a kick of flavour
> can be added to poha, with onions to make tomato-kanda poha
> can be added along with other veggies while making upma / khara bhath

I love it with plain, hot, steamed rice. Yummm.

Do try it out

Mint tomato & Flaxseed chutney

One more to my list of coconut free chutneys.

2 tbsp dry roasted chana dal
1 handful mint leaves - roasted
3 small tomatoes - roughly cut
1 onion roughly cut and slightly sautéed
1 small sized ball of tamarind / 1 tsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp sugar / jaggery
1 tbsp dry roasted flaxseeds
Salt to taste

Ghee, hing, mustard and curry leaves for tempering.

Put all the ingredients in a mixie and buzz it till It becomes a smooth paste.  Transfer into a bowl and add the tempering.
Can be had with dosas, idlis, chapati, and as a bread spread. Ek teer, kaee nishaan ;) One chutney, many uses!

Note : In my house most chutneys are made in batches and excess put in the fridge immediately.  They stay for up to a week. I dont add the tempering to the batch that goes into the fridge as I like the mustard seeds to be fresh and crunchy.

Ridge gourd and peanut chutney

Ridge gourd (Heerekayi in kannada) is usually unpopular.  I remember eating this mostly as a chutney or as part of a mixed veg sambar...never on its own. Now that I've started cooking, I quite enjoy the simple flavours of a home style ridge gourd palya or a dal. But I always go back to making this chutney whenever I have ridge in my fridge! :p

The best part about this chutney is that you can substitute whole ridge gourd with just the peel. Yea..really! So when you peel a ridge for dal or subzi , set aside the peel don't discard it. Use it to make this yummy crunchy chutney.

You will need:

--1 medium sized ridge gourd, roughly cut into large chunks OR 1 cup ridge gourd peels
1/2 cup peanuts
1 tsp seasame seeds
A thumb nail size bit of jaggery
Juice of half lemon
Salt to taste.

In a dry non stick pan, toast the peanuts and seasame seeds till they turn brown. Set aside to cool. In the same pan, saute the ridge gourd or just the peels till they become soft and start wilting. You can add a few grains of sugar at this stage so that the ridges retain their beautiful fresh green colour. 

Then put all ingredients into the mixie and blend well. When it comes to this chutney am a little moody. I like to blend it into a smooth paste at times..to go with hot rice. At other times, I like to pulse it with a dash of olive oil and it becomes a tasty bread spread. So, d o what you want to! Once blended, add the line juice.

If you'd like to try it with hot rice and ghee, I would suggest topping it off with some wonderfully fragrant 'vaghaar' or 'vaggarane' (seasoning) of mustard, whole curry leaves and hing.

Enjoy!

Onion chutney

The husband is currently on a very strict diey and has been told to avoid anything with coconut.

The thing is we are South Indians and chutneys are an important part of all our favourite recipes. This is a big challenge for me..to make chutneys without one of the core ingredients. ..coconut. I made this onion chutney and it turned out quite well.  So I have it on my list and here's the recipe

This is enough to mage a big bowl of chutney

3 large onions cut into quarters. .
2 tbsp bengal gram dhal, dry roasted
3-4 Fresh green or dry red chillies
1 tsp tamarind pulp
1/4 tsp jaggery
Salt to taste
Mustard, asafoetida (hing) and curry leaves for seasoning

Take a non stick pan  and with a few drops of oil, sauté the onions until they turn pink. Then roast the chana dal. Once they have have cooled, pit all ingredients into the mixer an d blend well with just enough water. Then heat a vaghaar pan, add 1 tsp oil, mustard.  Once the mustard crackles and settles down, add curry leaves and hing and turn off thw heat. Pour this fragrant seasoning over tje chutney and mix well to incorporate.

This tastes great with dosas and idlys. I used aome leftover chutney as a bread spread and it worked well. :) so go ahead and try it out!

This chutney tastes good for when thick. I dont like it thin and runny.

Experiment: Quick fix Peanut Onion chutney

 An experiment. A tasty one.

Late last evening, I was hungry and had to fend for myself. the in-laws had duties relating to their son's wedding which they had to attend to. Expecting them to return and then cook is unfair. Also, it was a chance for me to try out something new. We had some batter for dry rice rotis which my mom-in-law would have for dinner. Made some hot rice for the others. With rice, we had only rasam and no vegetables.

Quick idea: a chutney which can be mixed with rice and will also taste good with the rotis. Checked for the veggies and supplies readily available at home to mae it as simple and quick a preparation as possible.

Took a cup of peanuts and put them in the mocrowave to roast. 3 sessions of 1 min each and put it aside to cool. took about 5 onions and cut them into thich slices. Sauteed them in oil for just a bit, with green chillies and allowed it to cool.

Put the onions, chillies, peanuts, salt and an inch of tamarind into the mixer. After a minute of grinding, added some water. Figured it was tooooooooooooo salty (i can never get the proportions right with rock salt). So, chopped 2 more onions and put it into the mixie (without sauteing, this time, as i was in a hurry). This neautralized the saltiness. Also added a handful of roasted chana dal for taste. Ran all these in the mixie for one more minute till it became a thick fine paste. for those who want it liquidy, just add more water.

Garnished it with the regular seasoning (oil, mustard seeds, jeera, and asafoetida and a few curry leaves). This took me less than 10 minutes to make. My dad-in-law and sathys thoroughly enjoyed the chutney.

It's quite tasty when eaten with piping hot rice. Am thinking it'll also serve as a tasty dip with crudites / crackers.