Tomato Thokku/Pickle from another Blog

When I posted about this new venture I want to start, I received few comments saying how they liked the idea of recreating one of the other blogger's recipe and posting it. But it was Jayashree of 'My Experiments with Food' who sent me an email giving me the links to couple of her recipes that she would like me to try. That email couldn't have come at a better time since I had some left over side dish for chapathis but not enough and I had to make something along with that. We have been snowed in and we are tired from clearing the snow. I wanted to fix something quick and when I read one of the links she had sent me, I thought why not try her Tomato Thokku. You can find the original recipe posted by Jayashree here.

This is very similar to what I am used to in Karnataka called Gojju. I make tomato gojju all the time. There are some differences between my Gojju and this recipe. I followed her recipe almost entirely except for a minor detail. Here it is for your ease of reading..

Ingredients:

1. Juicy, ripe red tomatoes - 12, medium sized - pureed (I used two cans of organic no additive added chopped tomatoes of 14.5 Oz since I didn't have this many fresh tomatoes)
2. peanut oil or vegetable oil - 5 TBSP
3. Mustard seeds - 3/4 tsp
4. Urad dal - 3/4 tsp
5. Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Green chilli - 5 minced fine
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Red chilli powder - to taste
9. Hing - a big pinch
10. Salt - to taste

Method:
Puree the tomatoes in a blender till smooth. Heat oil in a pan. (Original recipe uses gingely oil which I don't use) Add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add both the dals and let them get golden brown. Now add minced green chillies, hing and saute for a minute. Add pureed tomatoes, turmeric, salt to taste, red chilli powder and simmer for 2 - 3 minutes. I did all these in a corningware dish which can be used on stove top and in a microwave. Here is the fun part. Jayashree has said in her recipe that it takes about 1 hour for all the moisture to be removed and I didn't have that kind of time today. Microwave dries up food faster than stove top. So, after mixing all the spices up, I kept the dish in the microwave and started microwaving in the intervals of 5 minutes stirring every 5 minutes or so. In the meantime, dry roast the fenugreek seeds and powder it. Add it to the thokku in the microwave and stir. It took me exactly 15 minutes to evaporate all the water content from the thokku. Check for the seasoning and adjust if necessary. Serve with roti, rice, bread. I served with chapathis and I mixed some with rice too and it tastes great. Thanks to Jayashree for sharing such a wonderful recipe with everyone.

Suggested Variation:
Omit hing and saute garlic and some finely chopped onion. When Onions are completely cooked add tomato puree and proceed as per the recipe. You get Onion - Tomato pickle/Thokku. If you like cumin, you can roast cumin with fenugreek seeds and use. Or you could just use cumin to season and leave out fenugreek.

Happy Cooking!! Pin It