Tomato Curry by Dino
You're looking for the tomatoes to cook down to a gravy consistency, with enough chunkiness left that you can treat it like a relish. The more you cook it down, the better it mixes with piping hot rice when you're ready to eat. The less you cook it down, the easier it is to serve with roti, dosa, puri, or naan.
Ingredients
- 5 TBSP of Peanut Oil
- 1 tsp of Mustard Seed
- 1 tsp of cumin seed
- 2 tsp of coriander seed (crushed)
- 1/2 cup of slivered ginger (not grated, not diced, not chopped in food processor)
- ~3kg Tomatoes (or tinned tomato that does NOT have calcium chloride; you need the tomato to break down)
- 3 large spanish onions, diced finely
- Ground red chiles
- Toasted sesame oil or Indian Sesame Oil
Method
- Start with the mustard seed, and let 'em pop WELL. Add the cumin and coriander. Then, add 3 large Spanish onions, diced finely.
- Cook until softened, and add 1 tsp of turmeric.
- Add as much ginger as you can possibly find. I like to do about 1/2 cup of slivered (not grated, not diced, not chopped in food processor) ginger.
- Then, add about 3 kg tomatoes. Seeds, skins, and all. And cook. And cook. And cook some more.
- The tomatoes will break down, and begin to reduce a bit. At that point, add lots of ground red chiles. You can use cayenne if you like.
- If you cook over high heat, make sure to stir frequently. It should take about 25 minutes to break down and reduce. Serve with dosa, idli, rice, chapatti, puri, whatever you like.
- And to finish it off? Add about 1 1/2 tsp of toasted sesame oil, or 3 tsp of Indian sesame oil.
- And salt it generously.
Variation
- Bonus points if you make the non-brahmin variation. Whereby you also add about 1 head of garlic, sliced up thinly to the sauteeing onions.
