Jamie Oliver's Tomato & Garlic Chutney

This light and vibrant vegan tomato chutney is inspired by the spicy cuisine of Western India. The flavor is sweet and sour with a pleasant chilli kick. It's a great accompaniment to all sorts of foods and a fantastic way to use tomatoes when in season! Beautifully refreshing for a hot summer’s day and quite comforting with warm foods in winter.

Yes, it's another recipe for tomato chutney. Our tomato plants are still producing about a kilogram of tomatoes daily. So I've been looking for all sorts of great ways to enjoy them! "More vegetables = more healthy" - is my mantra.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver

A few weeks ago I was suffering through watching the famed British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on a television cooking show. I'm more of a Team Nigella gal myself. I find Jamie annoyingly ditzy and dim much in the same vein as Gwyneth Paltrow. I do appreciate his emphasis on using ethically sourced, fresh ingredients though. Anyhow, Mr Oliver was attempting to prepare an Indian-style meal on the program. His rather imaginative idea of Indian food seems to always include fistfuls of fresh cilantro/dhania stirred in at the end of nearly EVERY dish. Curious, I ventured on to Mr Oliver's website and found this recipe.

Mr Oliver's tomato and garlic chutney was no exception to his cilantro/dhania fetish. A copious amount of cilantro/dhania was stirred in at the end of this recipe too. That presented a bit of a problem because during the steamy Monsoon season any tender, leafy green herb like coriander usually bolts or rots. But this week I harvested the first little scrawny bit of post-Monsoon cilantro/dhania which you see in the photo above! I hurriedly whipped this recipe up with tomatoes from our garden. I left out the sugar from the original recipe as my Kashmiri clan likes their tomatoes on the sour side. I also added a little cumin and used Kashmiri mirch for the chili powder for extra flavor. 

My Indian husband declared this the best tomato chutney yet! 

So there you have it. Authenticity be darned- this is good stuff! I you'd like less heat in your chutney try using a smoky paprika, for more heat use cayenne/degi mirch. In place of the sugar I've also tried tamarind paste which augments the sweet and sour notes of the tomatoes beautifully. Anyway you choose to make this twice cooked garlicky blend of tomatoes and cilantro/dhania it's delicious!

Ingredients:
8 garlic/lahsun cloves, peeled
8 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 tsp Kashmiri mirch (or 1/2 tsp cayenne plus 1/2 tsp paprika powder)
1 tsp salt
3/4 C  water
2 TBS cooking oil
pinch of asafoetida/hing (optional)
1 tsp black mustard seeds/rai
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera (optional)
1½ teaspoons granulated sugar or 1 teaspoon tamarind paste (optional)
1/3 C fresh coriander/dhania leaves, finely chopped

Here's what to do:
1) Put garlic cloves, tomatoes, one teaspoon salt, Kashmiri mirch, and 3/4 C water in a pan. Bring to a simmer, then cover and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool.

2) When cooled transfer the contents of the pan to a blender and blend the mixture to a paste.

3) Heat the oil in pan set over a low heat for about 7 minutes or until oil is fragrant but not smoking. Add the asafoetida, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds.

4) When the seeds begin to pop, add the blended tomato mixture. Be careful as the mixture might splatter when it hits the hot oil. Cook over a low heat for 15–20 minutes until the mixture becomes a thick paste.

5) Stir the chopped cilantro/dhania and sugar (if using) into fried mixture and mix well. Leave the chutney to cool a little before serving. This chutney will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Helpful hints:
I often leave out the asafoetida/hing as I find it really isn't noticeable competing with 8 cloves of garlic.

Bibi's Tomato and Bell Pepper Chutney

Get some tasty vegetables into your diet with this South Indian inspired bell pepper and tomato chutney! A savory vegan recipe that's so easy to make and a great way to enjoy Summer's bountiful produce. Pairs well with any rice or roti based meal and makes a great tortilla chip dip!

We're still enjoying tomatoes from our garden here in Nepal. Vegetables usually get expensive during the Monsoon season so I planted tomatoes, chili peppers, bell peppers, and eggplant in the sheltered areas of our yard. Above you see a day's harvest from our sixteen tomato plants, about a kilogram or two full pounds. You must pick tomatoes when they're not quite ripe here as they'll ripen and rot quickly in the heat and humidity of the Monsoon weather.

Here's about a day's harvest of bell peppers from our six bell pepper plants. Bell peppers are called capsicums or Shimla mirch in India and Nepal. What to do with all this vegetable largesse? Well, I made this recipe up! There aren't a lot of Indian or Nepali recipes for bell peppers aside from jalfrezi or tossing them into a veg omelet so I thought I'd try putting them into a South Indian inspired cooked chutney. And it worked beautifully! Now most South Indian chutneys require you to fry the vegetables first, cool them, grind them, and then fry the ground mixture again with spices. This double frying of vegetables goes on in a lot of Indian recipes. I'm not a fat-o-phobe nor a grease-o-phobe. But sometimes I think the goal of these Indian techniques is to get every pot in the kitchen dirty or to get as much grease flying around as possible! I thought about steaming the vegetables first but that's yet more gadgetry to clean. Recently, I suffered through watched a Jamie Oliver show where he made a tomato chutney by simmering the vegetables with a little water first and then frying the resulting mixture.

 SHABASH! (wonderful!) So I just combined the vegetables with a little water and spices in a pot and let them simmer until tender on the back burner while I cooked the rest of the day's meal. Then I let the mixture cool, ground it in the mixie, and then fried it to gorgeous glossiness. The result was fantastic! You probably do use a few less tablespoons of oil too. The spices I used were Kashmiri mirch, turmeric, cumin seeds, and black mustard seeds. Kashmiri mirch gives this condiment a rich red chili flavor with just a hint of heat. If you'd like more heat try using cayenne powder/degi mirch. If you'd like less heat try a mild and smoky paprika powder. Cumin seeds add their earthy warmth also. Turmeric is in there for it's bright color and antioxidants. Black mustard seeds add a bit of nutty flavor and are traditionally used in many South Indian cooked chutneys. If you wanted to make this even more South Indian you could fry some fresh curry leaves in the oil with the mustard seeds. Anyway you choose to spice it this recipe cooks up to a delicious, flavorful, fresh, and healthy chutney!

Ingredients:
7 medium sized tomatoes, roughly chopped
8 cloves of garlic/lahsun or 2&1/2 TBS garlic paste
1 large bell pepper/capsicum, roughly chopped
1 tsp Kashmiri mirch (or 1/2 tsp cayenne plus 1/2 tsp paprika)
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1/2 tsp turmeric/haldi
3/4 C water
2 TBS cooking oil of choice
1 tsp black mustard seeds/rai
salt to taste

Here's what to do:
1) Combine tomatoes, garlic, bell pepper, Kashmiri mirch, cumin seeds, turmeric, 1/2 C water and 1 tsp salt in a deep pan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then cover and cook over a low heat for 15 minutes.

2) Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool for about 15 to 20 minutes.

3) Transfer the contents of the pan to a mixie or blender and grind the mixture to a paste.

4) Heat the cooking oil in the same pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add ground tomato mixture. (Be careful when adding the tomato mixture to the hot oil as it may splatter.)

5) Fry mixture over low/medium heat for 15–20 minutes until it becomes a thick paste and separates from the oil. Salt to taste and allow chutney to cool a little before serving. This chutney will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days

Helpful hints:
Kashmiri mirch gives this condiment a rich red chili flavor with just a hint of heat. If you'd like more heat try using cayenne powder/degi mirch. If you'd like less heat try a smoky paprika powder.

If you wanted to make this even more South Indian you could fry some fresh curry leaves in the oil with the mustard seeds.

Fresh Mex Fire Roasted Salsa

Deliciously fresh and so simple to make, this fire roasted salsa is my favorite! Vibrant with summertime vegetables and bold smoky flavor this recipe is healthy and vegan too. This is the typical salsa you'll find served in Mexican-style restaurants across the US. It's not just a tasty dipping sauce for tortilla chips though, try it atop steaks, scrambled eggs, or even with rice and rotis!

This recipe does resemble the salsa served at a famous Mexican-style American restaurant chain whose claim to fame is fresh ingredients. In fact, you could even call this recipe "Fresh Mex" as their slogan states. I had a friend who worked at the original location of that restaurant chain in Alameda, California the mid-80's. She learned how to make their famous salsa and taught me how too. She told me she used to make 10 gallons of this famed dipping sauce daily at the restaurant So we had to scale the recipe down a bit and here it is! Now if I could only find decent tortilla chips here I'd be deliriously happy! But seriously, I miss Mexican food and the Californicated version of it a lot. They have the American chain Chili's in Delhi but it is horrid. As in soggy tortilla chips out of a bag, jarred salsa, and mashed kidney beans for frijoles awful.

A certain restaurant that shall remain nameless.....

So when tomatoes get ridiculously cheap or all turn ripe in my garden at once I whip up some of this yummy salsa! I can eat this stuff straight up I love it so much. Charring the vegetables really adds complexity and depth of flavor to the salsa. I char the vegetables on the gas burners of my stove but you can use a cast iron skillet also. Choose tomatoes that are really ripe and a little bigger than a ping pong ball so they'll cook just about through. Jalapeno and serrano peppers are the commonest chilis used in the American southwest and northwestern Mexico. Serranos are the hotter chili and jalapenos are milder and fleshier. Serranos are also closest in flavor to the green chilis used in most Indian cuisines too. Of course this salsa tastes great atop traditional Mexican foods like tacos, tostadas, and burritos. But give this a try with your scrambled eggs at breakfast, with a grilled chicken breast or steak, or even as a zippy chutney alongside any rice or roti based meal! Off to the recipe:

Ingredients:
8-10 medium sized tomatoes
5-6 green chilis (for less heat use half of a small bell pepper)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 small onion, peeled and sliced in half
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 TBS oil (I use olive oil)
1 TBS white vinegar or the juice of 2 limes
2 TBS cilantro, chopped roughly
salt to taste

Here's what to do:
1) Using tongs char the chilis, tomatoes, garlic cloves, and onions thoroughly over a gas flame. Make sure vegetables are blistered and slightly softened. If you don't have a gas burner: heat a cast iron skillet until smoking hot. Drizzle tomatoes, chilis, garlic cloves, and onion with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Char all vegetables in hot skillet.

 2) Set aside all charred vegetables and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes. Remove stems from chilis and butts from tomatoes.

3) Place cooled tomatoes, chilis, garlic, onion, ground black pepper, oil, vinegar or lime juice, cilantro, and 2 teaspoons salt in a blender, mixie, or food processor. Do not peel the charred bits off. Pulse until smooth.

4) Salt to taste and keep in an airtight container until ready to serve. Refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Helpful Hint:
This recipe make a great salsa even if you don't char the vegetables! Just pop them in the blender and blitz and you're good to go!

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!!!
The date is observed to commemorate the Mexican Army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza. In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become associated with the celebration of Mexican-American culture. I am a native Californian and so I'm going to be celebrating Mexican-American culture on this blog by posting Mexican-style recipes I've learned over the years throughout May. Plus, I really love Mexican food ;)

Hasta la vista, baby!

Bibi

Parsi Style Scrambled Eggs (Akuri)

Scrambled eggs take a spicy twist in this classic dish from the Parsi community of India. Ginger, garlic, green chilis, tomatoes, a hint of cilantro, and a pinch of garam masala make these eggs the ultimate breakfast for dinner. A quick and easy recipe that's ready in twenty minutes.

Parsi scrambled eggs, akuri, or akoori is one of my favorite dishes to order when we eat out. So when I saw this recipe in Saveur a few years back I had to try making them myself. The Saveur recipe was a little different than what I've tasted in restaurants in India so I've tweaked it a bit. I've added ginger, turmeric, and garam masala because that's what I've tasted in restaurants here. The turmeric gives the eggs a brilliant color while the ginger and garam masala gives them a bit more Indian pep. I usually use a little milk in the recipe rather than cream simply because I rarely have cream on hand. Whether you choose to enjoy these Parsi scrambled eggs atop buttered toast with orange juice in the continental manner or with rice and rotis in the subcontinental way I'm sure you'll love'em!

Ingredients:
4 eggs
3 TBS cooking oil or ghee
1/2 C onion, finely diced
2 tsp ginger/adrak paste
2 tsp garlic/lahsun paste
2-3 green chilis, finely chopped (omit for less heat)
1 tomato, finely diced
1/4 tsp garam masala or ground black pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric/haldi powder
2 TBS milk or cream
2 TBS cilantro/dhania leaves, chopped coarsely
optional for garnish- 2 TBS chopped cilantro/dhania leaves

Here's what to do:
1) Heat oil or ghee with one tesaspoon salt in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent. Add ginger, garlic, chiles, and tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes soften, about 5-6 minutes.

2) While onion mixture is cooking mix eggs, garam masala or black pepper, turmeric, milk or cream, and chopped cilantro together until thoroughly mixed. (Sometimes I cheat a little and run this through the mixie.) 

3) Add egg mixture to fried onion and tomato mixture in skillet with a half teaspoonful of salt. Mix well. 

4) Stir and cook egg mixture until set into soft curds, about 6 minutes. Transfer eggs to a platter. Garnish with cilantro sprinkled over eggs and serve hot with toast, rice, or as a fiiling for a kati roll or breakfast burrito.

Helpful Hints:
For breakfast on-the-go or a tea time treat we like to roll Parsi scrambled eggs in a roti with a dollop of chutney. This is sort of like the street food called a kati roll in Kolkata, a frankie in Mumbai, or a breakfast burrito in the United States.

Momo ko Achar (Nepali Chutney for Dumplings)

Momos are a savory dumpling of Tibetan origin that are popular in Nepal. Momo ko achar is the spicy tomato based dipping sauce traditionally served with momos. This recipe combines fire roasted vegetables with earthy cumin, bright coriander, zesty red chili, and the surprising zing of Szechuan peppercorns. The result is an amazing blend with a uniquely Nepali taste! Serve as an authentic accompaniment to steaming hot momos or as a delicious dip for potstickers. 

My Nepali maid taught me how to make this chutney or dip. I've tasted several different versions of this sauce across Nepal but hers is still the best! I guessed what was in the chutney but didn't know Nepalis charred the tomatoes, bell pepper, chilis, garlic, and ginger. Fire roasting certainly makes a huge difference in flavor! 

For truly authentic momo ko achar the vegetables would be roasted on the embers of a traditional Nepali stove called a chulo. Chulos come in various sizes and configurations but are generally made of clay and wood fired. The lovely lady in the above photo has one of the newer indoor models which have a chimney built along the wall. If you look closely you can see her pots are coated with mud on the bottom to prevent blackening and scorching from the fire.  I am told nothing can compare to the taste of food slow-cooked upon a chulo but I use my gas stove for more timely results. I char the vegetables on the gas burners of my stove but you can get similar results if you use the broiler in an oven. I wondered if the spices would be dry roasted but traditionally they aren't.

Nepali timur or Szechuan peppercorns

Please be advised that this chutney is HOT.  It's not just the green chilies that are spicy hot. Nepali timur or Szechuan peppercorns and red chili powder adding their zing too. So there's three kinds of heat going on in this sauce! You may leave the chilies out for less heat and swap the traditional timur for tamer black peppercorns - but momos are meant to be eaten with tears streaming down your face!

Ingredients:

3 large tomatoes

1 bell pepper/capsicum, destemmed and deseeded

2-3 green chilies/hari mirch

4 cloves of garlic/lahsun, peeled

1&1/2 inch piece of ginger/adrakh, peeled

1 C cilantro/dhania, chopped

1 tsp cumin/jeera, ground

1 tsp coriander/dhania seeds, ground

1 tsp Kashmiri mirch (or 1/2 tsp paprika plus 1/2 tsp cayenne powder)

1/2 tsp timur/Szechuan peppercorns (or ground black pepper)

1 TBS oil of choice

Salt to taste

Here's what to do:

1) Roast the tomatoes, bell pepper, green chilies, garlic, and ginger until blackened. Either put them over an open flame or cut them in half and put them under a broiler until the skin blackens and splits. I do this on the gas burners of my stove but traditionally this would be done on the coals of a cooking fire.

2) Allow roasted vegetables to cool completely. 

3) When the roasted vegetables have completely cooled peel away the blackened skin. Remove seeds and stem from bell pepper. Place roasted vegetables, cilantro, cumin, coriander, Kashmiri mirch, timur, oil, and one teaspoon salt in a blender, mixie, or food processor. Grind until mixture is smooth.

4) Grind until mixture is smooth. Salt to taste and serve with piping hot momos or potstickers. Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Helpful Hints-
Other authentic variations of this recipe blend in a tablespoonful of dry roasted sesame seeds or dry roasted peanuts.

Punjabi Dhaba Style Egg Curry

Punjab is a region in northern India and a dhaba is a typical inexpensive roadside restaurant you'll see all over South Asia. This egg curry is a great example of the simple and delicious food you'll find served at any traditional dhaba. A boldly spiced tomato and onion sauce tops crispy fried eggs in this traditional dish. So easy to make and pairs perfectly with rice, rotis, or parathas for a fantastic Fall lunch or dinner!

As I've said before, Nepali eggs are just incredible. Look at those beauties in the photo above! Those would be like grade AAA super jumbo premium eggs in the US. I don't normally even care for eggs that much but these buttery, saffron yolked Nepali eggs are something else. We get them so fresh they're still warm here in Nepal but older eggs work better for this dish. Yes, fresh eggs stick to their shell and don't make for smooth hard boiled eggs when peeled. Frying the hard boiled eggs gives them more texture and extra flavor. If you don't have time to fry the hard boiled eggs or don't wish to, just score them shallowly with a knife so they'll soak up some of that spicy sauce.

Ingredients:

5-6 hard boiled eggs, shelled

3 TBS cooking oil or ghee

3/4 C onions, sliced thinly into half moons

1 cassia leaf/tej patta

1&1/2 inch piece cassia bark/dalchini (or cinnamon stick)

2 tsp garlic/lahsun paste

2 tsp ginger/adrak/paste

1 tsp salt

2 tsp kasoori methi/dried fenugreek leaves

Grind until smooth for masala:

4 tomatoes/tamatar, chopped roughly

2 tsp garam masala

2 tsp cumin/jeera

2 tsp coriander/dhania, ground

2 tsp Kashmiri mirch (or 1 tsp paprika plus 1 tsp cayenne powder)

3 green cardamoms, elaichi

3 cloves/laung

1/4 tsp turmeric/haldi

Here's what to do:

1) Grind all ingredients listed under masala to smooth paste in mixie, blender or food processor and set aside. Heat oil in deep, heavy bottomed skillet or kadhai for 7 minutes. Sprinkle one teaspoonful of salt in hot oil. Fry shelled hard boiled eggs for about three minutes on each side in hot oil until golden brown. Remove eggs from  hot oil and set aside on plate.

2) In the same oil and pan fry onions until golden brown, this should take about 7 to 9 minutes.

3) Add cassia leaf/tej patta, cassia bark/dalchini, garlic paste, and ginger paste. Fry for 2 minutes or until raw smell has left garlic paste. Add ground masala paste from step 1 to fried onion mixture, stir well. Crumble dried fenugreek leaves/kasoori methi into mixture, stir well and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. If mixture begins to stick or scorch reduce heat, add 1/4 cup of water, stir well, and continue simmering.

4) When oil separates and floats to the top of the simmering masala mixture your sauce is ready. Add fried hard boiled eggs to sauce, stir well, and allow to heat through for 3-4 more minutes. Salt to taste and serve with rice or rotis.