Tomato Pickle, The Simpler Way

My parents and husband come from different parts of the same state. I therefore have a couple (sometimes more) of versions/recipes to follow, when I am planning to prepare a dish. Sometimes, the same dish has different names too. Tomato pachchadi / ooragaya is also prepared differently in our families. My mom has a version of tomato nilva pachchadi which can be stored year long without any refrigeration. My mom's version uses sun dried tomatoes. I cannot afford that much of sunshine in Chicago and so, I went by my SIL's directions and prepared this tomato pachchadi which can also stay fresh for at least six months, if refrigerated. That is another thing whether you will have any thing left to refrigerate, once you taste it. Two cups of pachchadi was gone in less than a week at my place and we don't live in a hostel. And yes, the number of adults in our home is only two. The preparation is simpler compared to my mom's version. Though, it is going to take around an hour to prepare this, there is no need to show your love and attention through out the process. Plan to prepare this pachchadi, when you are cooking a meal in the kitchen. Just stir the mixture once in a while to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pan. You can cook the mixture with occasional stirring on low -medium flame, for most of the part (80% of the cooking). The final stages need to be cooked on low flame with almost constant stirring. The final product should look like the one in the picture (almost as thick as homemade puliyogare gojju). It goes well with rice and a tsp of ghee or as a side dish with any Indian breakfasts.

Ingredients: Chopped tomatoes - 5 cups Thick tamarind extract - 1 cup Chili powder - 1/2 cup Salt - Accordingly Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp Oil - 8 Tbsp Mustard seeds - 1 tsp And a deep bottomed, non stick pan Wash the tomatoes thoroughly and chop them in to medium sized pieces. Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and add tomatoes to it. Fry on medium flame for about five minutes. Remove them from heat. Let them cool a little bit and puree them in a blender. Again add remaining oil, tomato puree,tamarind, turmeric powder, asafoetida to the pan and keep cooking on medium flame. Since the mixture tends to splatter, cover the pan with the lid. You can cook on medium flame and keep stirring once in a while in the initial stages of cooking. Later turn down the heat to avoid the mixture sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook till the mixture reaches almost solid stage as in the picture. Then add chili powder and salt and let it simmer for about five minutes. Heat a tsp of oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds start to pop, remove and add it to the tomato chutney. Let it cool and store it in a glass jar and refrigerate it.

Other related post:

Tomato Chutney

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