Hyderabadi Tomato Chutney Recipe

Fragrant and tangy, with juicy chunks of simmered ripe tomato and a particular earthy, minerally aroma from recent curry leaves, this thick tomato chutney is a condiment I all the time preserve readily available to serve with biriyani, rice, dal, grilled rooster, and extra. In South Asia, chutneys are sometimes made very spicy so {that a} tablespoon or two per individual is adequate so as to add welcome warmth to a meal. Quite than being added to dishes, it is on the desk with most meals, so diners may also help themselves to extra in the event that they like. 

My favourite model of tomato chutney is Hyderabadi tomato-curry leaf chutney. I used to be first launched to it after I was 14 years previous, after my household moved again to Hyderabad, India from Canada for my father’s job. I had by no means been to this traditionally Muslim metropolis within the northern tip of south India earlier than, and I used to be a little bit of a foreigner with my Canadian accent. Nonetheless, a Hyderabadi Muslim lady, Ayesha, befriended me at college. We ate lunch collectively daily sitting cross legged on the playground. Whereas I unpacked my sandwich, Ayesha opened her tiffin field full of a conventional Muslim college lunch—shami kebabs, chapatis, a sauced vegetable dish, and tomato–curry leaf chutney. The deep purple condiment with its inexperienced flecks of chiles and curry leaves was intoxicatingly fragrant. 

Whereas I by no means acquired to attempt Ayesha’s chutney, I’d watch her benefit from the aromatic condiment, selecting out the leaves one after the other and leaving them on the bottom beside her lunchbox. Each time we acquired up to return to class I used to be amused by the circle of leaves she all the time left behind. I believed it was a disgrace that she by no means ate the chutney’s curry leaves, which gave it a particular aroma and taste. I beloved the scent of curry leaves and loved them in different dishes that my mom cooked, like gajarachi koshimbir, carrot slaw with mustard seeds and curry leaves.

It wasn’t till a number of years after highschool that I lastly tasted Hyderabadi-style tomato–curry leaf chutney, and it was all the pieces I had dreamed it will be. Tomato–curry leaf chutney is incessantly seen on a Hyderabadi Muslim plate, usually alongside chapatis, dal, rice, meat, and greens. Hyderabad’s wealthy historical past and the affect of each Northern Indian and Southern Indian cuisines is mirrored in its personal distinctive delicacies.

Hyderabadi’s delicacies options dishes like kebabs and biryani, and substances like saffron, pistachio, and rose water, because of its Qutb–Shahi rulers, with roots in Turkey and Persia, who got here to Southern India from the north of the nation. Substances comparable to curry leaves, tamarind, and rice, that are native to Southern India, are additionally loved in Hyderabad. And there are substances that got here to India from the Americas through Portuguese explorers—chiles, tomatoes, and potatoes. All these substances, over generations, created a globally influenced delicacies distinctive to Hyderabad, and this affect is mirrored within the metropolis’s tomato–curry leaf chutney.

As an grownup, I discovered easy methods to make the chutney myself from Bilkees Latif’s cookbook, The Essential Andhra Cookbook (a part of the identical Penguin sequence as my The Essential Marathi Cookbook). By this time, I used to be dwelling within the U.S. and cooking for a dwelling. With my skilled culinary data, I performed with Latif’s recipe to make it my very own and created a fast, simple model. Listed here are just a few suggestions for easy methods to make my tomato–curry leaf chutney at residence.

Suggestions for Making My Tomato–Curry Leaf Chutney

Use loads of recent curry leaves and add them at completely different levels. To showcase my deep love for curry leaves, I name for 15 entire curry leaves—that’s greater than Latif’s recipe and most different recipes name for on this model of chutney. It’s necessary to make use of recent curry leaves, not dried, as a result of dried leaves simply don’t have the identical intense taste because the recent do. Sautéing about half of the curry leaves with the opposite aromatics in the beginning of the recipe, then including the remaining curry leaves after the tomatoes are completed cooking, intensifies the curry leaf taste within the chutney.

Whereas the tomatoes, chiles, curry leaves, mustard seeds, and asafoetida give the chutney greater than sufficient taste, I really like so as to add ginger and garlic for much more savory taste to stability the candy stewed tomatoes. 

Add asafoetida for assertive taste. Asafoetida is a gum resin that drips off the roots of an herb known as ferula asafoetida, a central Asian plant within the celery household. It’s gathered after which floor right into a powder. Nuggets of it was once left in sacks of grain as a result of bugs stayed away from its robust aroma. Cooks in India discovered that its robust onion-garlic scent and taste was a welcome addition in lots of dishes. Within the Indian state of Maharashtra, the place my household is from, asafoetida-mustard-turmeric is commonly thought-about the “holy trinity” of seasonings. My father did not like asafoetida’s pungent aroma, so my mom by no means cooked with it after I was rising up. However as an grownup I’ve grown to like its taste and all the time use it after I make a mustard seed seasoning, like I do right here in my tomato–curry leaf chutney.

Have your spices measured and prepared earlier than cooking. Heating the oil and cooking the spices and aromatics occurs in a short time on this recipe, inside minutes. Opening a number of jars of spices and measuring them out on the range and even having many small bowls of spices prepared so as to add to the pot, might be time-consuming and cumbersome, and result in the oil burning. To make sure you don’t burn the spices or overheat the oil, you need the spices to be prepared so as to add earlier than you begin heating it. I like to make use of an Indian spice field, and I like to recommend having one in the event you plan to make Indian recipes usually. With the spice field, small parts of incessantly used spices are on the prepared, and the field might be opened for straightforward entry when you anticipate the oil to warmth. Because the field solely holds a couple of week’s price of spices, they keep recent however might be replenished when wanted from the pantry. 

In the event you shouldn’t have a spice field, don’t fear. There’s a simple resolution: Measure out your spices onto two plates and preserve them by the range. On one plate, put mustard seeds, turmeric, and asafoetida, about an inch aside; on the second, place the grated garlic and ginger, sliced chiles/chili powder, and 7 curry leaves, additionally one inch aside. This manner, when it is time to add every ingredient, it’s going to be able to go. 

Use in-season tomatoes. The flavour of candy, in-season tomatoes is incomparable, and I like to recommend utilizing them right here. Cooking the tomatoes down right into a jammy combination additional sweetens their taste to distinction the spices, aromatics, and recent chiles. The result’s a tomato chutney that’s candy, savory, and spicy.

How one can Serve Tomato–Curry Leaf Chutney

You’ll be able to in fact serve this chutney with Hyderabadi dishes like biryani or baghara baingan (Indian eggplant in a wealthy cashew nut and spice sauce) or dishes from different elements of India comparable to sizzling white rice, chapatis, sautéed greens, and dal. But it surely’s additionally nice as a burger topping, paired with grilled rooster, or added to a pasta sauce. I take pleasure in it dolloped on goat cheese and a cracker, with a little bit of quince paste for distinction.