Tomato Pickle

My garden is raining beautiful red ripe tomatoes!

And what better way to use them, than to make my friend Mini’s delicious… Tomato Pickle!

This way I can preserve their rich tangy taste and continue to enjoy them in the cold winter months!

It’s super easy to make and elevates a simple everyday meal to something special!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 kg ripe tomatoes

3- 4 tsp Salt

2-3 tsp Red chili powder

3-4 whole dry red chillies

20gms Tamarind (remove seeds and extract pulp)

Methi seeds 1/2 tsp

1 tsp jeera

2 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp hing

Handful of karipatta

3/4 cup Mustard oil

Method:

Heat oil (reserving 1 tbsp) and add chopped tomatoes, salt and and red chilli powder

Cook on medium flame. When the tomatoes reduce to half way, add the tamarind pulp.

Cook till the tomatoes reduce to a thick paste and you can see oil shining on the surface

For the tempering:

Heat a tbsp of oil in a separate pan, add hing, rai, jeera, methi dana, whole red chillies (I used fresh hot ghost peppers instead) and curry leaves.

Cook for a few seconds and pour tempering on top of the tomato pickle….ready!

Once cool, store the pickle in an air tight container. I prefer to keep in my refrigerator, that way it lasts for many months.

This pickle tastes delicious with simple meals, like dal-chawal, khichdi, dahi-rice etc.