Roasted tomato chutney/ achar

Whenever I invite people over for a meal, I get all worked up and start planning for a 101 things to make. I even buy all those ingredients for the 101 things and since my organisational skills are extremely good I end up cooking the very last moment, panic and in the nth hour decide to not make half of the things I planned on preparing.

Story of my life.... You'd think I'd learn from mistakes, no, not me, that ship has sailed long past and I sit and wallow in sympathy (or at least hope I get some sympathy). I panic and turn to the husband who decides to console me by saying I take too much unnecessary pressure, its only a bunch of friends, you don't even need to make starters, why are you overdoing it, no one will eat so much so on and so forth...not what you want to hear when you have guests coming in any time, a messy (open) kitchen, at least two dishes on the hob (bubbling away) and a human version of an exploded volcano- that's me btw (forgive the pun).

Its always the starters that I end up leaving for the last minute and invariably not make it at all. Ro keeps telling me its rude to hover around the kitchen when there are guests involved. I admit its rude to cook while they are around, but checking in on stuff in the oven, filling a tart or even frying something is acceptable, especially because these things, if made before hand, loses all the goodness. Which of course is all Greek and Latin to my husband and we end up arguing about it (always and in between all this commotion). 

He offers to help, like thread stuff on to skewers and stuff, but god it takes an awful lot of time, Ro being the perfectionist he is, and asks at least 10 different questions on how to do it. Did I tell you I have no patience to answer to people when I'm in the midst of something? Well, my husband of 6 yrs doesn't get it and keeps asking me 'does the tomato have to always go in first? Why are we threading it, cant we just pile it all in a bowl and serve, its going into peoples mouths, no one cares. To avoid all this nonsense, I don't ask him to help with preps. Trust me, its a smart move, because over involved husbands are a pain to deal with, I've seen some and I don't want to encourage it. So the rule in our household is..if you need help, ask for it.

So anyway, coming back to the topic, we had a few relatives over a while back and since there were quite a few of them we decided to order biryani from a fav restaurant of ours. Since main course was taken care of, I had all the time in the world to go ballistic on starters. Again, after a warning from the husband that I shouldn't over do it, since biryani is a heavy meal, I still went ahead and make a tonne of starters. I also decided to do a wine and cheese pairing since most of them were wine drinkers (and also because I had just researched and written an article on wine pairing and it sounded too good to pass). I made this chutney rather by fluke and it ended up being a great accompaniment with cheese and crackers. It is so easy to put together and stays in the refrigerator for quite some time. I also use this as a dip for momo's, vada's and even dosa and idli. The measurements are all adjustable, so bear with the vagueness.          

Ripe tomatoes- 250 gms, sliced in half (any variety is fine)

Olive oil- 1/2 tbsp

Sea salt- to sprinkle

Pepper- to sprinkle (freshly ground)

Coriander leaves- 1/2 tbsp, chopped (optional)

Green chilli- 1, roughly chopped

Ginger paste- 1 tsp

Garlic paste- 1 tsp

Vegetable oil- 1/2 tbsp

Mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp

Fenugreek powder- a generous pinch

Asafoetida- a pinch

Salt- to taste

Pre heat oven to 200C

Line a baking tray with silver foil and arrange the tomatoes on it, cut side up.

Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven for about 35 to 40 minutes.

Once done, take it out and leave to cool. You can peel away the outer covering if you want, but I left it on.

Grind together the roasted tomatoes, coriander leaves and green chilli to a paste-like consistency.

Mix with the ginger and garlic pastes.

When ready to cook, heat oil in a sauce pan and add the mustard seeds. Let it splutter.

Add the tomato paste along with fenugreek and asafoetida powder and cook on medium heat till you see the oil separating. Keep stirring in between.

Check for seasoning, add if required and take it off the flame.

Leave aside to cool and serve it with some crackers and cheese.

Notes: Its a slightly tangy dish, so be prepared.

Add more green chillies if you want it spice or if you want a mild version, omit the green chilli altogether and add a half tsp of Kashmiri chilli powder instead.

Replace olive oil with any other oil. I like how the olive oil gives a distinct taste.

Sweet and spicy Asian dipping sauce with Tibetan Momos

I was first introduced to Momos by my college mates in Chennai. I had three Tibetan friends in my class and they used to rant and rave about these, and invariably all of us ended up liking it so much we started harassing them to throw Momo parties. Even for our culturals there used to be Momo stalls and needless to say we absolutely loved gorging on those with the sauce topping it all.

I have no idea what came over me yesterday, but I had to make some Momos and I put in a message on one of these friends' FB page asking him for the recipe. He had not replied and my lack of patience didn't let me back out. So I harassed my best friend on gtalk asking for the recipe because she had made it once long back after seeing it in some mag. She gave me a-lil-bit-of-that a lil-bit-of-this recipe and I soooo knew I was gonna screw up and that's when I realized, why not head to the Chinese store and just buy the wrapper (which is where I usually screw up) and use the remaining mince meat which I'd frozen, as the filling. Oh how clever am I? Yes, clever indeed and ran to the Chinese store only to realize there were at least 4 varieties of dumpling wrappers and another 4 varieties of wonton wrappers. After a failed attempt at trying to understand what the store keeper was trying to explain, I called Ro, who was working from home, to check it up online and let me know. He just confused me even more (no surprises there). Anyway, picked the one I thought was apt and ran back home.

The focus here, however, is the kick-ass sauce I whipped up surprising me altogether. I usually don't experiment when it comes to food and follow a recipe religiously, but this time, I just threw in a few things and came up with this dipping sauce which I'm sure teams well with almost any Asian appetizer and maybe Indian ones like samosas and I'd even serve them as a dip for normal chips.

Filling:

I used this recipe for the mincemeat filling. I know its not authentic but by now you'd already know be familiar with my lack of patience and so had to make do with this. But my mom-in-laws spring roll filling is a good enough one I'd assume and so please do follow that for a more authentic recipe. 

Wrapping and cooking:

Now wrapping it up...I just blindly followed this video and it is actually as simple as that. But where I think I screwed up was the steaming bit which I either kept for too long or too short and it was a wee bit rubbery. If you guys have some knowledge about it please clear it for me. Is 20 minutes too short or too long a time to steam the dumplings??? 

Dipping sauce:

(The quantity is for a very small bowl of sauce, so adapt it to how much ever you'd like)

Tomato- 1/2 of one medium sized tomato, thinly sliced

Onion- 1 shallot, thinly sliced

Dried red chillies- 3 to 4 (or even more if you want it really spicy)

Chopped coriander leaves- 1 tbsp

Tomato ketchup- 1/2 tbsp (if you want it sweeter, add a wee bit more but not too much)

Cumin powder- a pinch (optional)

Soy sauce- a dash (Its optional , but if adding add very little)

Salt- to taste

Oil- 1/2 to 1 tbsp (yes I know its a lot for such small quantities, but it just worked for me. Reduce if you are not comfortable)

EVOO- a dash (optional)

In a saucepan, heat the oil and throw in the onions and red chillies. Sauté till they turn light brown.

Add the tomatoes, cumin powder, soy sauce and salt to this and on medium heat cook till the oil separates.

Add the tomato ketchup and coriander leaves and mix well for about a minute or so.

Take it off the fire and leave aside to cool a bit.

Now using either an immersion blender (oh how I love you immersion blender) or a pestle and mortar, grind/crush this till it becomes more or less mushy....not too paste like. Pulse it two or three times if using a blender.

Pour into a sauce bowl, add a dash of olive oil, mix well and serve with just about anything.

Notes: Adding garlic to this makes it even tastier, but I just didn't have time. Next time for sure.

Its like a tomato chutney, but with a sweetness attached to it.

I think I've found the perfect and easiest sauce for all my fried stuff.

Since the first batch didn't turn out well, I fried a few just to see if it would be any different. Well compared to the steamed ones, the fried ones were better but that is simply not an option for me cos I detest fried stuff. This is how it looked like:

Sending the sauce over to the Food Palette Red Event over at Torviewtoronto