Tomato Pachadi (Chutney)

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I come from Andhra Pradesh - the land of spicy, hot pickles and chutneys. People from my state probably can prepare pickles/chutneys out of everything. However, preparation of (some) pickles which stay fresh, year long is a daunting task for a novice and also for those who cannot find the right ingredients. Chutneys come to my rescue to some extent when I yearn for those mouth watering pickles my mom prepares.They are easy to prepare and are like cousins (instant forms) of the traditional pickles. Tomato is one of the vegetables with which my mom prepares pickle which can stay fresh, year long. Though I don't afford that much of sunlight here to prepare the sun dried version, I do prepare it by the simmering method. When I need it quickly, then I go to my mom’s tomato chutney. I am new to this blog world and recently came across Pooja’s blog “My Creative Ideas”. When Pooja announced tomato as the vegetable of the week, tomato chutney popped up at the top of my list. I prepare it frequently. So, I am going to contribute this for pooja's vegetable of the week.

Ingredients required:
Tomatoes (red & ripe) – 4
Oil - 2 Tbsp (or as required)
Red Chillies – 8 to 10
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds / Methi seeds – ¼ tsp
Hing / Asafoetida – A pinch
Salt – As needed

Preparation:
We need to roast the tomatoes for this chutney. I follow my mom’s good old method for roasting tomatoes.Wash tomatoes cleanly and wipe them dry. Do not chop them. Heat a tbsp of oil in a wok / pan and put tomatoes in it. Just toss the pan a little bit so that the tomatoes are uniformly coated with oil or alternatively, spray with oil. The point is there must be some oil at the base of the tomatoes so that they don’t get burnt while getting roasted. Keep turning the tomatoes so that they are roasted uniformly. When they are done, remove them and keep aside.When they are cool, peel the skin from the tomatoes.
In the mean time, do the tadka. Heat one more tbsp of oil in another small pan and add urad dal and mustard seeds. When urad dal start to turn a little red, add fenugreek/methi seeds, red chillies and hing. Turn off the heat when urad and methi seeds completely turn red.Take care to add fenugreek/methi seeds later because they get burnt easily and also don’t add more of them since they turn the chutney bitter. Let it cool.
Grind the roasted tomatoes, tadka ingredients and salt together into a (little coarser)puree in a blender. Tomato chutney is ready to serve with rice/ rotis.

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Vankaya Perugu Pachchadi

Probably, the best translation of the title of this post would be eggplant chutney in yogurt base. I think some woman who did not like to throw away her sour curd came up with a brilliant idea of this simple yet delicious sidedish. This pachchadi is prepared using roasted eggplants, sour yogurt and green chillies. The preparation is so simple that even clueless cooks cannot go wrong with this recipe. Whenever my yogurt goes sour I make this. Or if I have eggplants, then I just leave my yogurt outside, to go sour. It just doesn't taste the same, if sour yogurt is replaced by fresh ones. This is a very easy dish to make and tastes delicious both with rice and rotis. I usually prepare mudda pappu (Plain dal) when we are planning to eat it with rice. We mix rice, dal and ghee, make morsels and dip them in the 'perugu pachchadi' and eat.

Ingredients :
Sour curd - 1 Cup

Oval shaped Eggplant - 1
Green chillies (Chopped fine) - 3 or more
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Hing / asafoetida - A pinch
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - Few
Chopped cilantro for garnishing
Oil - For tadka

Preparation:
I follow my mom's method of roasting the eggplant. Wash the eggplant and wipe it dry. Remove the stalk. Put a small pan on the stove. Add 1 or 2 tsp oil and put the eggplant in the pan and just twist the pan so that the eggplant is uniformly coated with the oil or spray the eggplant with the oil. Let it roast on a low flame. You do not have to stand in front of the stove through out the roasting process. Just cover the lid. Check after a couple of minutes. Just keep turning the eggplant so that it is uniformly roasted on all sides. When it is done, remove and let it cool. If it is properly done, you should be able to easily peel off the skin. Mash the eggplant with a spoon or use your hand. If you know any other ways of roasting the eggplant, follow that.

Take the sour yogurt in a bowl and just beat it with a spoon just to get a uniform consistency. Add the mashed pulp of the eggplant and chopped cilantro.
Take a small pan and now do the tadka / popu. Add a tsp of oil. I would prefer to add chillies first so that they are nicely done. Then add mustard seeds and curry leaves. I will wait about a minute or less while the green chillies lose their green color (or else I feel they taste raw). Finally add hing and turmeric powder. Remove the pan and add the tadka to the yogurt- eggplant mixture and stir it. The perugu pachchadi is ready to serve.


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