Zelda's South Indian Tomato Chutney

Having a container full of South Indian-Style Tomato Chutney in your refrigerator will ensure you never go hungry. It will last for a week or two in the fridge, and longer if you freeze it in portions.

It can be had with dosas, idlis, uttapams, appams, paniyarams, rice-sambar, rice-dal-sabzi or with just plain rice. Or even in a grilled cheese sandwich.

It doesn't always have to be made extra spicy -- that allows it to be consumed in larger quantities as a side.

Zelda's South Indian Tomato Chutney

Serves: 5-6

Ingredients

• 8 medium tomatoes, halved
• 3 red onions, peeled halved
• 12-14 pods garlic
• 3-4 bedgi chillies or sharper dried red chillies
• 4 tbsp ghee
• 2-inch piece ginger, grated
• 20 peeled sambar onions
• 3-4 green chillies
• 3 tomatoes chopped
• Boiled or filtered or mineral water
• Salt, to taste, about 1 tsp
• 1 tsp dhania or coriander powder
• 1 tsp jaggery, optional
• 1-2 tsp red chilly powder, optional
• 1 tbsp til or sesame oil
• 2 tsp urad dal or whole white gram
• 2 tsp chana dal or whole Bengal gram
• 2 tsp rai or mustard seeds
• ½ tsp hing or asafoetida
• 12 curry leaves

Method

• In a large heavy-bottomed kadhai roast the 8 tomatoes, bedgi chillies, onions and the garlic with 3 tbsp of the ghee over medium high heat till they develop black spots and they blacken the kadhai.
  Take off heat.
  Keep aside to cool.
• Roast the sambar onions in the remaining 1 tbsp ghee till a little crisp in a frying pan for 8-9 minutes.
  Keep aside.
• Grind the roasted tomatoes, onions, garlic, chillies with the nearly all of the ginger (reserve a generous pinch for later) and a little mineral water to achieve chutney consistency.
  Keep aside.
• In a fresh kadhai add the sesame oil, urad dal, chana dal and roast the dals till mildly red over low heat.
  Increase the heat and add the hing and the mustard seeds and allow them to splutter for a minute.
  Add the curry patta, chopped tomatoes, remaining ginger, 3-4 green chillies and cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes.
  Add the ground mixture and the salt, dhania powder, red chilly powder (only if the chutney is not spicy enough) and a dash jaggery if preferred (the onions and tomatoes will already add sweetness) and cook for 4-5 minutes more and then add the ghee-roasted sambar onions.
• Serve or store.

Zelda's Note: This chutney can be made without onions and garlic for those who don't eat onion and garlic. Ginger can be replaced with saunth or dried ginger powder.
To veganise the recipe use cashew butter instead of ghee.

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