Tomato Peanut Chutney

This Andhra-style hot and sour tomato peanut chutney is great on the side with boiled rice, especially on days when you don’t have another curry to go with your meal.

The recipe is thanks to a friend who deftly took over my kitchen last evening to make this chutney. A standout moment while she worked was when she picked up a fistful of chilies to add to the chutney. “I can comfortably eat green chilies, sure – but this much!”, I thought as I looked on in trepidation. She assured me that quantity will work, and so it did. “Eat little but don’t skimp on the heat” was her advice, and I’m going to stick with it.

You Need:

• Tomatoes – 6 ripe
• Green chilies – 8
• Dry red chilies – 2
• Peanuts (raw unsalted) – 1/4 cup [buy here]
• Tamarind – 1-inch ball
• Salt – to taste
• Whole coriander seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Fenugreek seeds/methi kuria – 1/2 teaspoon
• Mustard seeds – 1 heaped teaspoon
• Asafoetida powder – a pinch
• Peanut oil – 1 tablespoon

How To Make Tomato Peanut Chutney:

Heat a tablespoon on oil in a skillet or pan. Add mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds to the pan and let them splutter.

Follow with dry red chilies, coriander seeds, peanuts and asafoetida powder. Stir around, making sure the spices do not burn.

Continue frying on low heat for a few minutes, or till the peanuts have browned. Take the pan off the heat.

Set the tempering aside and allow it to cool.

Wash and chop tomatoes into large cubes. Snip the heads off green chilies.

Remove the tempering from the pan into a chutney grinder and grind it to paste.

In the same pan, add a few more drops of oil and cook the tomatoes and green chilies together on high heat, stirring regularly.

Pluck apart the tamarind ball into bits and add it to pan in which tomato-green chili is being cooked.

After ten minutes, the tomatoes and green chilies would look somewhat like this:

Take the pan off the heat and let it sit till the cooked tomato-green chilies mixture reaches room temperature.

To quicken this step, take a tip off our book: stir the mixture with all might under a full-speed fan. Or let me know if you have smarter ways of doing this!

Transfer the cooked tomato-green chilies mixture to the chutney grinder with the tempering paste. Activate the grinder again till the tomato-green chili mixture has blended.

Tomato peanut chutney is ready to serve. Have it the side with rice and simple sabzi – suggestions: aloo palak (spinach potato curry), baingan bhaja, parval bhujiya.

When refrigerated, the chutney stays good for about three days.

Notes:

Try other tomato-based condiments too: roasted tomato chili chutney, cherry tomato coriander chutney, tomato pickle in mustard oil and vinegar.