Sunday, October 05, 2008

Tomato Chutney and Adai

My hands were itching to try this chutney! Tangy tomatoes with simple spices .. what's not to love? When I land a cookbook, I cannot rest until I have tried all those recipes that catch my fancy. What happens then, is, those recipes feature on the blog in a line!

As a child I knew of only one green chutney was the one my Mom made by grinding together coconut, green chiles, cilantro, ginger, cumin with a dash of lime juice and sugar and salt. This tasty chutney was a base for our sandwiches, to be mixed with dahi-rice, to be enjoyed with poha, upma, wada... and therefore, tomato = koshimbir or gravy or in a sandwich. The imagination did not go far beyond that!
My first taste of a Tomato chutney was about 6 years ago when a South Indian colleague had brought this in his lunch box and his Mom had given a generous helping of both dosas and chutney ( this was for our mid- night or 3:00 am snack after our shift at the call center) knowing fully well how much we appreciated it!

1/4 cup Canola Oil ( I used about 3 tbs)
36 Curry leaves torn
2 tsp Cumin seeds
2 tsp Mustard Seeds
12 Dry Red Chiles
1/2 tsp Turmeric
3 1/2 lbs ( about 6-7) Tomatoes , cored and chopped
1 (4.4 oz) tube Double concentrate Tomato Paste or 1 (9oz) Can Tomato Paste
2 tbsp Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper ( I used about 2 tsp)
1 tsp Sambar / Rasam pwd. or 1/2 tsp Curry pwd. ( I used 2 -3 tsp Sambar pwd.)

Heat Oil with curry leaves, mustard , cumin and chiles in a large kadhai /wok over medium-high heat until the cumin has browned.
Add Turmeric and cook until the chiles darken
Add remaining ingredients and cook for 10 mins. stirring occasionally and pressing the tomatoes on the sides of the wok to mash them if they do not break on their own.
Reduce heat to Medium and cook till the chutney is thick and jammy stirring often for another 25-30 mins.
(if you are using hard winter tomatoes cooking time is reduced)
Taste for seasoning , transfer to a plastic container and refrigerate for up to 1 week.

I made changes to the spice proportion, I prefer my chutneys with a slight kick.


I paired this fab chutney with this Golden Delicious Adai for a lip-smacking combo. I love adai, it is so convenient to make! No fermentation! And So very crisp! The perfect solution for winter when the batter takes forever to rise.

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33 comments:

Sig said...

I adore tomato chutney with dosas... my version is a little different though. Love your take on it, and I loved the fact that you even have specific numbers of curry leaves to be used :D

Mrs.Kannan said...

I always loves to make tomoto chatni..its very easy to make...i love the look of your adai,than the chatni...adai looks crispy why havent u posted a method to make those crispy adai?

Tee said...

mmmm...looks so inviting! The combo must be delicious !!

Vibaas said...

Looks yummy. Adai looks super crisp! I'm with you about not having to wait for it to ferment...My kinda dish :-)

Manasi said...

Hi Sig! It is Saran's recipe .. I would love to see ur version.. do u have it on ur blog? off to chk!!!

Hi Mrs. Kannan! I have linked it to the Adai recipe. My Baby did not give me the opprotunity to paste the recipe!

Hi Tee! It is Yum!

Hi VIbhaas! Thnk U ! no fermentation is my kinda thing too!

Uj said...

Hi Manasi,
Yummy looking tomato chutney I have never tried this. bookmarked to try. Adai looks crispy and perfect. will try it for breakfast tomo :) Thanks

Vani said...

Both look delicious, Manasi!

delhibelle said...

Hi Manasi,
It's tea time here right now, and I would so give anything for that crispy adai and tomato chutney:)
Love to the little one

Sia said...

Slurp... the best tomato chutney i have ever tasted was made in my hostel.. yup, seriously :)

sunita said...

What a beautiful meal...btw, hope your li'l one is doing great :-)

Cynthia said...

I made some tomato chutney for the first time a couple of weeks ago and loved it. I used a combination of green and half ripe tomatoes. I love the vibrant red colours of your ripe tomato chutney.

Deepa Kuber said...

tomato chutney looks so delicious.. i loved the adai too

Sangeeth said...

super yummy chutney! my fav ! i do it slightly different! but wat a colour...urs look very vibrant!

Bhawana said...

wow it so tempting me. Chutney color is wonderful and with dosa it yuummmy :)

Priyanka said...

the first pic is beautiful manasi...really tempting.

Unknown said...

Perfect with adai..

Priya said...

your adai looks crisp and perfect! Wish I could have one instead of the granola bar I am eating :(

Varsha Vipins said...

it looks so slurpy..nice chutney manasi..:)

bee said...

looks lovely. try replacing the sugar with jaggery or chopped dates. it's even better.

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

first time here.. adai looks awesome! where in Ca are you from? i am in LA.

Vaishali said...

Hi Manasi, Tomato chutney is a favorite at our home: yours looks terrific. Glad you tried the adai.

Anonymous said...

this does look pretty tasty Manasi!tomato-onion chutney is my fav, but this chunky version sounds better!:)

Vaishali said...

Hi Manasi, to reply to your query about the coconut rice, pre-shredded coconut would work fine. I use the pre-shredded coconut I buy from Whole Foods which is much dryer than the fresh-shredded coconut we usually use in India. Hope that helps :)

Shweta said...

Another yummy post! :) Hope you and your little one are doing great...
I specifically dropped in to tell you I made Zafraani pulao from your recipe. I followed your recipe precisely (well, I cheated a little bit - used very few almonds as I hate nuts). And boy was it good or what! It goes down in my cooking history as the best pulao I have ever cooked! I served it with grilled paneer tikka, made a memorable weekday meal! :) Thank you!

Usha said...

Both of these look delicious:-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Manasi,
As I could not find an email address for you I have been forced to put this as a comment.Sorry that it is not directly relevant to your chutney post but I do see you are against plagiarism so:

This is to request you to find the time to take a look at my food blog http://thecookscottage.typepad.com I have been writing it since 2005.

Every few months I have had posts of mine copied wholesale by one paper or another. The latest, and for the third time in a row, is The Times of India group. They published a piece today which was a straight lift from something I had written in May 2006.The proof is there on the blog in the form of photographs. Please follow the links as well so you will know some of the history of their ongoing plagiarism.
My blog is not high prose...nor is it fantastically creative. Nevertheless we all own our words and photographs, published, as they are, not for money but, for the sheer joy of writing about what interests us.
I would be very grateful if you could log onto the site and support me by leaving a comment. It will be immensely helpful for a prospective battle against this very arrogant Goliath.
Thanks

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow this looks spicyly yummy.

Anonymous said...

This was a fantastic chutney - thanks for sharing

Anonymous said...

I took a class over the weekend that you and your readers might be interested in

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Gayathri said...

Adai looks very tasty..
http://justurs.blogspot.com/2009/02/magnificent-click-contest-2009.html contest

Anonymous said...

Hi,

sounds delicious..the color of the chutney is tempting,i never tried this but i would like to make an effort.

Dazy said...

Me and my kids are crazy about chutney. I'm making this tomorrow. I think I'll try to shoot it, but I don't think it will be as pretty as your picture!

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

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