Ingredients
Tomatoes - 1 kg
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder (Kashmiri) - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Chop the tomatoes into small chunks and keep aside. Heat the oil in a utensil and drop the mustard seeds into the hot oil so that they pop. Cover the utensil till the popping sound stops. Then add the tomatoes.
Leave the heat on high. Fry for 4 minutes, stirring regularly. The tomatoes will start to turn mushy like in the picture below.
Add all the spice powders and salt. Retain the heat on high. At this point, the chutney will start splattering out onto the stove and counter top. Use a splatter screen.
Retain the high heat. Lift the screen off to stir every now and then. Do not let the chutney stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. Do this for about 6 - 7 minutes.
The chutney will now start to thicken and reduce.
Continue to stir frequently till it reduces further.
Observe the picture above to see little holes forming in the chutney. At this point, discontinue use of the splatter screen. Retain high heat. Stir constantly till chutney thickens and the oil starts to separate. This will take about 8 - 10 minutes. During this time, there will still be splattering. Take care not to burn your hands. Use a protective oven mitt if necessary.
You know your chutney is done when it looks like this.
This chutney can be eaten with dosas, idlis, chappathis or served as a relish to accompany a main meal. It is a also a great sandwich filling for an office lunch.
This is a simple dish and can be whipped up in less than half an hour. My daughter loves this chutney. She no longer lives at home with me, and it is something that I make for her every time she visits. She likes to eat it with dosas or rolled up in a chappathi.
Thakkali chutney, rolled up in chappathis is what she took for lunch, when she wrote her gruelling multi-hour professional accounting exams in 2012. The food had to be taken in a see through bag, that was examined by the authorities, before it passed into the exam room. I made a silly joke about a microphone being embedded in her chappathis, that would aid cheating in the exams. I have no doubt repeated this a million times since. In my mind, I can see my daughter rolling her eyes at me. But my dad used to make a similar joke about two men eating chappathis and how one thought the other was a spy, using a microphone embedded in the chappathi. My dad thought it was pretty funny and guffawed heartily, his eyes twinkling with mirth. Writing this today, two continents away from the little town I grew up, and over twenty years since my dear dad passed, I can hear his voice relating this story and I can hear that laugh and see that twinkle in his eyes.
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