Healthy least oily Tomato Pickle

Tomato pickle

Pickles make regular appearance in the dining table and are most welcome guests. They have an intrinsic property to make a most dull platter of food look enticing and change the taste to mouthwatering. We Indians are blessed with different variety of food because of the diversity in weather, culture and eating habits of people of different part of our country. Tomato soup, ketchup, sauce etc. are well known as frequently used form of tomato but tomato pickle? It was a surprise to me in late seventies, when I had tomato pickle at my friends place while doing Ph.D. and wondered how the lady converted tomatoes to such innovative yum tasting pickle have. Later when I got married tips from my Andhrite friends and habit of experimenting in the kitchen resulted in this less oily healthy pickle.

 I love having it not only with rice and chapatti but love  using it for making sandwich also. My family loves having curd and rice with tangy spicy Tomato pickle.

Preparation Time: 15 min.

Cooking Time: 45 min

Servings  500 gm. pickle.

Materials Required for Making Tomato Pickle:

• 500 gm. Red Ripe Fleshy Tomatoes

• 100 gm. Tamarind

• 100 gm. Jaggery

• 50 gm. Salt

• 25 gm. Red chili powder

• 1 Teaspoon Turmeric Powder

• 1 tea spoon Chana dal

• 1 Tea spoon Dhuli Urd dal ( Urd dal without green / black cover)

• 15-20Whole Red chilies

Spices for seasoning

• 50 ml. Cooking oil (Ground nut oil / sesame oil / soya oil / olive oil/ Mustard oil)

• 1/4Teaspoon Asafoetida powder

• 5-10 Kadi Patta (Curry leaves)

• 4 Teaspoon Mustard seeds

• 10 ml. Vinegar

Directions For Masking Tomato Pickle:

• Wash and dry tomatoes nicely.

• Cut tomatoes thin long pieces.

Tomato pieces for Pickle

• Take thinly cut pieces of tomatoes in a glass / stainless steel container and mix 25 gm. salt and 1 tea spoon turmeric powder in the tomato.

• If the pickle is being made in hot weather / summers then cut and mix salt and turmeric in night cover and leave overnight but if pickle is being made in cold weather / winters then cut and mix salt and turmeric in morning cover and leave for 24 hrs.

After 24 hrs of soaking Juices squeezed from tomato pieces

• Sieve the juices and squeeze the tomato pieces by pressing between the palms.

• Mix the squeezed juice to the sieved juice.

• Keep the squeezed tomato pieces under the s8un for drying on a stainless plate / plastic sheet / glass plate for 4-5 hrs. when the temperature is high ( 40 ^o C or more), 7-8 hrs. in winters when the temperature is 30^o C – 35^oC.

Tomato pieces kept under the sun for drying after squeezing the juices

• Clean the tamarind of the seeds and soak cleaned tamarind and whole red chilies in the tomato juices for 5-6 hrs.  under the sun.

Tamarind and whole red chilli soaking in tomato juices under the sun

• Tomato pieces will become semi dry and the tamarind will soak the juices of tomato and become soft.

Tomato pieces drying under the sun

Dried Tomato Pieces

• Blend the soaked tamarind and chilies to pulp along with juices. Keep extra juices aside.

Juice from tomato pieces , chilies and Tamarind pulp

• Take oil in a thick bottom wok (I always cook in anodized / non-stick wok / pans) and heat on high flame.

• When the oil is smoking hot lower the flame and add mustard seeds. Mustard seeds will splutter immediately.

• Add chana dal and urd dal and cook on low flame till touch of pink starts coming on them.

• Add 4-5 whole red chilies and kadi patta.

• Cook for 30 seconds.

• 

Seasoning getting ready for pickle

Add Asafoetida and immediately add semi dried tomato pieces.

Ready for Tomato pieces to be added

• Stir and mix spices and tomato pieces nicely. Cook with continuous stirring for 3-4 minutes on low flame.

Tomato pieces added to the seasoning

• Add the mixture of tamarind pulp and tomato juices.

Tomato juice left after making pulp of the soaked tamarind added

After 10 min of cooking 

• Mix nicely and cook for 3-4 minutes.

• Add

• Salt red chili powder

• Jaggery

• Mix and cook with regular stirring till all juices are absorbed and the pickle starts leaving the edges of wok.

• Add vinegar and mix nicely.

• Cook again for one minute with continuous stirring.

• Switch off the gas and let the pickle cool without covering the wok.

Pickle ready for bottling

• Store the cooled tomato pickle in a dry glass bottle.

Tomato Pickle

• Enjoy the Tomato pickle with Dosa/ Pesarattu / Idli / da-chawal / mutton or chicken biryan / Stuffed paranthas.It goes well with all vegetarian and non- vegetarian foods.

Tips:

• Do not dry the tomato pieces so much that they become hard.

• Remove the seeds and hard cover of tamarind before soaking in tomato juices.

• Preferably used fruit based vinegar rather than synthetic vinegar because fruit based vinegar has nutritional values.

• Pound /cut the jaggery before adding to the pickle it will dissolve faster.

• Always break whole red chili before adding to oil otherwise it may burst and cause accident.

• Tomato taken for pickling should be fleshier. Lesser fleshy and more juicy the tomato will require more cooking time and hard work.

• Jaggery, salt and red chili powder can be increased or decreased according to the taste.

• Always add red chili powder in small amounts and check the taste for hotness before adding all  said amount of chili powder. The grade of hotness for chili powder differs from one chili powder brand to other and homemade chili powder may have altogether different degree of hotness.

Suggested Variations:

• Peeled whole or sliced garlic can be added to the pickle just before adding the vinegar.

Ready to be bottled

• Grated 4-5 cm. piece of ginger can be added to the oil after adding kadi patta and cooked till the foam due to the moisture of ginger stops coming from oil. Then the semi dried tomato pieces can be added.

• Sugar / brown sugar can be taken in the absence of jaggery.

Idli (Steamed rice and pulse Puff)

Idli and Sambhar

These steamed puffs made from the fermented mixture of rice and urd dal are as wonderful to look at as they are to eat. Fluffy, light, and soft they melt in the mouth. When eaten with sambhar they make a full meal low on fat therefore best for cholesterol patients like me and all weight conscious people.

In almost whole of the southern part of India idli, dosa, Uttapa, Appam these are taken with sambhar and coconut chutney be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack because they are delightful to the taste buds along with being healthy low on calorie and easy to make .

Those who are interested in amalgamating India in their kitchen should try it and enjoy the taste of authentic South Indian dish.

Preparation Time: 15 hrs. For making batter of idli.(Soaking, grinding, fermenting time included)

Cooking Time: 20- 30 min per batch

Servings: Makes 24-30 medium size idli

Ingredients Required for Making Idli:

• 250 gm. Par boiled rice

• 150 gm. Urd dal

• Water

• Directions for Making Batter for Idli:

• Wash rice and urd dal and soak them separately in plenty of water for at least 5-6 hrs.

• Drain the soaked water and grind dal and rice separately in a grinder – mixer.

Paste of Urd dal for Idli batter

Paste of Rice for Idli batter

•   If you have a grinding stone electrically operated or manually operated then dal and rice can be ground together.

• Water should be added while grinding.

• Take fine paste of dal and rice in a big container and mix them thoroughly.

Unfermented batter of Urd dal and rice paste mixture

• Cover the container and keep for 10- 12 hr. for fermenting.

Batter for Idli kept for fermentation

• After fermenting the batter will become slightly sour, light.

• Mix the batter nicely with a ladle.

• Take an idli stand, oil the hollows with oil and pour the batter in the hollows till their brim.

Idli batter in idli stand

Idli stand with idli batter for 12 idli

• Heat 250 ml. water in the container of the idli stand and when water is hot place the stand with batter in it and cover the container.

• Put the gas on high for 5 min. and then lower the flame.

• Cook for 20- 25 min. on low flame.

• Puffed idli should be ready.

• Check if the idli are cooked by poking a thin knitting needle in it or a knife in it. The needle /knife should come out dry.

• Allow the idli in the stand to cool for 5 min. then remove them from the stand using a knife or flat spoon.

Fluffy soft Idli

• Repeat the same with all the batter.

• Depending on the idli stand of yours you can make 12 or more idli at a time.

• Enjoy Idli with Sambhar (http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/05/sambhar-tur-dal-cooked-with-vegetables.html) and coconut chutney and of course with your family

Idli and Sambhar

Tips:

• Idli batter can be kept in fridge for 3-4 days at least.

• The amount of water you use for steaming idli should be enough to be just below the last idli base not touching it.

• If the knife or the needle you use for testing the idli come out with some sticky material cook the idlies on low flame for some more time.

• For a batch of 12 idli more than 30 min. are normally not required.

• Do not add too much water while grinding as the batter will become thin and idli will not come out soft and fluffy.

Suggested Variations:

• Instead rice ,idli rawa can be taken.

• Idli rawa should be soaked but not ground, only dal needs to be made to paste and added to soaked, drained idli rawa, and kept for fermentation for 10-12 hr.

Soaked Idli rawa

Paste of Urd dal for Idli batter

• The idli from idli rawa come out to be slightly grainy but very soft.

Idli from Idli rawa

• Those whom urd dal does not suit can take either 50:50 mixture of urd and moong dal or replace urd dal with moong dal.

• The batter with moong dal requires to be fermented for 4-5 hr. only.

• The taste of idli with moong dal is absolutely different than one with urd dal.

• Once you gain expertise in making idli then you can make stuffed idli by pouring some batter in the hollow then the filling of your choice and again some batter

• Left over idli can be fried and eaten with coriander mint chutney (http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html)

• The left over idli can be made to upama with vegetables.

• Hot idli taste fantastic with hot ghee and sugar.