Tomatoes cooked down with red chili and a whisper of garlic into a glossy, sharp-sweet relish; the notebook's cooked chutney for the days raw isn't right.
Snack · 5 min prep · 15 min cook · serves 4 Newly added
Ingredients
- 3 tomato , chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , optional, sliced
- 2 red chili , whole dried, broken
- 1 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- 4 curry leaves
- 1 tsp jaggery , optional
- to taste rock salt
Preparation
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Heat the oil and pop the mustard seeds; add the dried red chili, curry leaves and the garlic if using.
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Add the tomatoes and salt; cook on medium, mashing, until they collapse into a thick glossy paste, 10–12 minutes.
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Stir in the jaggery if using and cook a minute more.
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Cool slightly; serve at room temperature with dosa, idli, paratha or phulka.
In the tradition
A cooked chutney keeps longer than a raw one, which is why every notebook has one: for monsoon days when the raw mint chutney’s freshness feels wrong, the slow-cooked tomato version is exactly right.
Sources & further reading
- Family recipe notebook (chutney page, "tomato 3, garlic, red chili, oil, salt")
Classical citations mark where a tradition is drawn on; modern books are shared as further reading, not as prescriptions.