Tried and tasted by Nivedita
Hi All,
Is tomato a vegetable or a fruit? Debate continues. Who cares! Aap Aam khao, pedh kyoun gin na? Tomato is used in many recipes for its sour taste and its color also. Tomatoes are used to make rasam, sambhar, salad, chutney, juice and even the face pack. And it comes handy when we are out of vegetables in the fridge. But only thing is the tomatoes should be ripe and firm. Normally hybrid (salad) tomatoes are used to make this stuffed style. As these tomatoes are firm and don't have juicy pulp inside and they taste sweet also.
I avoid tomatoes as much as possible as my hubby has kidney stone problem. I replace tomato with kokam, lemon, tamarind, curds or dry mango. But tomato is tomato, it has its own texture, color and taste.
A very easy and rich food which looks great on dining table and tastes great too. Let's start the recipe.
SERVES 3
Ingredients:
Fully ripe red hybrid tomatoes - 6
Onion - 1 big or two medium
Red dry chilly - 4 to 6
Almond powder - 1/4 cup or less
ginger - 1/2" piece
garlic cloves - 3-4
or ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
(you can drop garlic and use only ginger also)
Fresh coriander - handful
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Rock salt - as per taste(use the normal salt also if you don't have the rock salt)
Whenever possible I use rock salt as it's better than the table salt and tastes great)
Haldi or turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
dry methi or kasuri methi - 1 tsp
Fresh cream - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp to roast the onions
Water to grind into paste
Method:
- Clean, peel and chop the onions.
- Fry onion and dry red chilly with a tsp of oil till brown, add ginger and garlic also before you take it off the stove.
- Keep it to cool in a plate.
- Wash and wipe the tomatoes.
- Trim the stem end of tomatoes carefully to get a flat opening. With a small round spoon take out the pulp slowly without disturbing Its firmness. If pulp is not very watery you can use it in the masala.
- Take the fried stuff, salt, chilly powder, haldi and grind into a little coarse paste.
- Remove in a plate. Check the taste and adjust accordingly.
- Now, stuff the tomatoes with this masala. Once all are stuffed, some more masala will be left out.
- Take non stick kadai (I use pans from Sanjeev Kapoor's wonderchef product which was gifted by my brother. The pans are magical) or a normal one.
- Heat oil in the kadai. Once hot, add the stuffed tomatoes slowly and close with the lid for few minutes. Cook on a slow flame. Open the lid and add the remaining masala. Mix slowly. Close the lid again and cook for 3-4minutes.
- Till that take the fresh cream and beat it with the beater or fork or small blender. Add the cream, garam masala and kasuri methi. Mix gently and cook for a minute. Remove from the stove. Serve hot with phulka, chapati or naan.
- Note: You can add fresh scrambled paneer in masala.
Keep Smiling,
