Friday, February 23, 2007

Red Tomato Chutney


I had recently made Green tomato chutney, and now, the everyday Red tomato found itself in this form! A few months ago, we had a pot luck, where my friend B, made this version of chutney. When I first tasted this chutney, I was amazed at the all new taste... I had never eaten something like this.... it was a blend of tomatoes, with something sweet (dates, which I first thoughtwas tamarind- jaggery! ), then the spicy red chilly reared its head in between, then again I found myself biting into fennel.... two - three helpings later I was still longing for more, but delicacy forbade me to pig out! Also telling myself that, looks, she's just a phone call away... get the recipe and make your own chutney!
Now B hails from Orissa and told me that this is a very common everyday preparation back home.... just like I would make 'Lasun chutney' back in Maharashtra! So a few weeks ago B and I spoke and I took down the recipe. But making it and blogging about it took a while. In fact, I made a mistake, I replaced the dates (as I had no stock of these at home) in the recipe with tamarind - jaggery... big mistake!! the taste was NO WHERE close to the original version and I was disappointed... and as always when a fiasco like this happens, I sit tight for a while, musing over it, till the urge to give it one more shot nags me.
Apart from that, I have this bad habit of scribbling on 'pages' which find themselves in my easy grasp when on the phone, but annoyingly disappear when I actively hunt for them and reappear when I least expect and the places where 'I swear' I did not keep it in.
So anyway, this 'page' with the tomato chutney scribbled on it with various other things among a few telephone numbers and doodles and my name in various fonts, found itself cadging for my attention once again.

Firstly, the Origin of this recipe is Orissa / Bengal. They use 'Panch Phoron' which is a mix of equal parts whole cumin (jeera), fennel(saunf), fenugreek(methi seeds), nigella(kalonji), and mustard seeds (rai). Looks like this
pic source :Google search

These 5 different tastes blend to give the chutney a twist in the taste!
For the Chutney, you need:

4 Tomatoes ( Medium size)
4 no. Dates

1 Tbsp Oil

1/2 tsp Panch Phoron

1 Dry Red chilly

Few curry leaves
1/4 tsp. Turmeric
Sugar (to taste, I used 1 tsp.)
Salt to taste


For Garnish:

1/2 tbsp Cumin seeds
2-3 Dry red chilies (+/- to taste)


Do the preparation. Assemble all the ingredients
Chop the tomatoes.
Heat oil.
Add the Panch Phoron.
After it sizzles , pops, sputters, add the red chilly and curry leaves and saute for half a minute.
Add the chopped tomatoes and mix well.
Add the turmeric and salt. Cook till soft.
Add the dates and sugar. Mix and cook fo a couple of mins (till the dates soften)

For the Garnishing:
DRY roast the cumin and red chilly.
Cool and grind it or pound, using a mortar and pestle to a rough powder.
Add this to the chutney after it is fully cooked.

Serve as an accompaniment to daal-rice, roti - subzi.
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11 comments:

HAREKRISHNAJI said...

तोडाला पाणी सुटले.

FH said...

Beautiful color for that Tomato chuney.Looks fabulous.I love Panch phoron seasoning too.Great photos.

Anonymous said...

Those tomatoes are the reddest (is there a word like this????) I have seen!!!!
Nice post Manasi. :) And the description of the spices is very good!!!! The chutney looks amazing!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Manasi, I was in splits reading about your scribbling on 'pages' - espcially the part about names in various fonts :-) Me and my husband do that all the time ! A benign form of narcissism I guess :-). Well apart from that, I want to say, I love the way you write. Very funny and very expressive. And I love all your recipes. Keep up the good work.
Supriya

Sia said...

ah... good writeup and lovely recipe:)

Manasi said...

HKji, chan ahey hi recipe, jara nehemi peksha vegli!

Asha, Thank U!! I came to know of 5 phoron only after I came here!!

Coffee, Hehehehe i said the same thing to M, those are the reddest tomatoes I've seen, want to buy!

Supriya, Thank u so much for ur kind words! It is very encouraging. Keep visiting!

Sia (supriya), Thanx dear!!

Anonymous said...

hi manasi....my friend made this for me once...and it tasted so good! you reminded me of her when I saw this recipe....must make this sometime soon.

Trupti

Anupama said...

Hey Manasi, That's a very nice Chutney and an very very nice write-up you have there. Is that the piece of paper you scribbled on in the pic?

Anonymous said...

The chutney looks yummy! Never tried it with this set of ingredients. Thanks for sharing, Nalini

bee said...

love your blog. have added you to our blogroll.

bee

Manasi said...

Hi Trupti! glad u liked it!

Hi Anupama!Thank u!! & Yup!that is the paper i scribbled it on!!
Hi Nalini! Thank u so much!!

Hi Bee! Thanx I loved ur blog too!

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