Happy ✨ 🍅 ✨ season!!
Is it tomato season already? If you’re used to summer almost 24x7 where you live, like I do, every day is tomato season (maybe not when it rains though). The tomato, like the mango, is a summer fruit. But here at home, I’ve grown up accustomed to the availability of tomatoes year round. Good, because I am blessed with an endless supply. But not really so, because the tomatoes that arrive after summer are rather dull, watery and bland-tasting, often not ripe (also, every state in India has a different tomato season btw). As food writer Vikram Doctor writes, “part of the problem is that… we are still evolving in our relationship with the tomato”. I think this is true anywhere the tomato is produced in greenhouses, and commercially farmed. Along with the banana and the mango, they are harbingers of the dangers of mass production resulting in tasteless supermarket mush, and conditioning us into thinking that fruits (vegetables??) do taste like this. Indians consume them year-round, along with onions and potatoes. It makes the base of our curries, rasams, biryanis. However, the tomato is a recent entrant, unlike, say sugarcane.
A look into the spread and popularity, or lack thereof, of a cultivated plant is then necessary. In my mind there are predominantly two. One is to look at the species, its genus, whether it has any relatives, or look to its wild ancestral roots, and come to a conclusion about the modern crop. Another way would be to look at its history and development, its role in world cultures, if at all it moved through countless countries and cities or if it stayed put and remained local. The tomato has been a casualty of both. Its botanical status is a fruit but it’s used more commonly as a vegetable in salads, soups, sauces, chutneys, rather than as a fruity component in desserts. Botany also tells us that it was considered poisonous because of its relation to belladona and nightshade, which was later found to be so because its acidity reacted with the pewter plates used by wealthy Europeans.
What does history tell us? That the species, which originated in Central and western part of South America – the wild ancestor of the plant which is the ancestor of all domesticated tomatoes was found growing wild in northern Peru and southern Ecuador – was then adapted to survive various climates and then domesticated in Mexico/northern Central America. Domesticated varieties then, as the story goes, were thought to have taken from Mexico to Europe by Spanish explorers. The offsprings of the European tomato strains are the ones that we now consume.
Enough of what history tells us. What do I have to tell you about a plant that is central to many culinary cultures around the world? Three recipes. Summer tomato at your service.
Tomato thokku
Ingredients
- 5-6 ripe, juicy tomatoes
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil; a bit of ghee/butter to add towards the end would be good
- 1 tsp brown/black mustard seeds; use cumin seeds if you don’t have mustard
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida powder; omit if you don’t have it
- 1 tbsp chilli powder/paprika
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- Curry leaves, optional
- Kasuri methi; you can find it online or at your local grocery stores (MDH is a good brand)
- Salt and 1/4 tsp sugar to taste
Method
Cut the tomatoes in quarters and blend them to a smooth purée. Heat a wok/kadai/saucepan on a stove and add the oil. Once the oil is hot (you will know this if you place your hand well above the saucepan or tilt the saucepan to one side and you will see that the oil has a shimmer), add the mustard seeds/cumin seeds, curry leaves, the asafoetida powder and stir gently. Wait for the mustard seeds to pop (stand away if you are new to this, and no, I’m not joking), then immediately add the tomato purée and stir. In a couple of minutes you can see the colour change. Add the turmeric, sugar, coriander powder, and chilli powder and stir once again. Place a lid (or a sheet tray) over the top and let it simmer till all the water has evaporated – I’d say a good 10 minutes. By that time, the purée would have reduced to a dark red paste, that will look spreadable as opposed to a pouring consistency. That’s when you know it’s done. Add the salt now and some crushed kasuri methi leaves and stir once again.
Notes
- I add the salt last because when the tomatoes reduce, it leaves a lot of salt behind.
- Since we’re evaporating every bit of water behind and haven’t added any fresh herbs, this paste freezes well.
- You could use this as a sandwich spread or on flatbread. We usually eat this with idlis, dosais, and/or rice. It’s excellent as a base for cheese toast, especially if you don’t have fresh tomatoes lying around but want the flavour.
- Spices maketh a dish. If you omit all the Indian spices here and go with something else, say dried oregano, dried thyme etc, you could used this paste as a base for pasta or pizza sauce, in stews, soups whatever. In a spicy clam broth! There’s so much concentrated flavour!
- I would also use it in place of a pizza sauce to make quick flatbread/roti pizza – spread on a plain tortilla/roti/random flatbread, add grated cheese, toppings, grill, eat! (Yes to pineapple on pizza!! I will die on this hill.)
Tomato rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice; rinsed well and soaked for 10 minutes
- 5-6 ripe tomatoes; if not, a can will do
- 1 tsp brown/black mustard seeds; use cumin seeds if you don’t have mustard
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp asafoetida powder (optional)
- 1-2 tbsp ghee/butter; or any vegetable oil
- 2 cardamom pods; or a tsp of cardamom powder
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- 1 star anise
- 1/2 red onion cut into thin slices
- 1 tsp of garlic-ginger-green chilli paste
- 4-5 curry leaves; dried or fresh (optional)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp garam masala
- salt, sugar, chilli powder to taste
- 1/4 cup of chopped fresh coriander (stems and leaves)
- 1 cup of water; plus extra if necessary
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
Method
If using fresh tomatoes, cut into quarters and blend to a smooth purée. If using canned, crush them in a bowl with juices and all and set aside. I’m using a pressure cooker to make my rice (IMO, the best way to cook rice). I’ll give other methods below as well. Heat the cooker with 1 tbsp of ghee/butter/oil, wait till it’s hot and then add the mustard seeds (or cumin seeds), fennel seeds, curry leaves and wait for the mustard to pop. Then add the asafoetida powder (if using), cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise and saute for 5 seconds. Add the ginger-garlic-chilli paste and stir immediately because it has a tendency to stick to the bottom. Add the onions and a bit of salt to saute (here the salt helps draw out water from the onions), and wait till they soften a bit. You can brown the onions by either adding fat or water, little by little. Now, add the tomato purée, and the ground spices – turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder, and sugar and stir well. Let it boil a bit, say 2-3 minutes. Drain the water from the rice and add to the spiced tomato mixture. Add salt and mix well. For a cup of rice, you need 1.5 cups of liquid to give you separate grains of rice. So you can add a cup of water and half a cup of coconut milk and mix well. Put the lid, add the weight, and set the burner to high. Wait for one whistle, and turn the burner to low. Wait five minutes and switch off. Let the rice rest for 15 minutes at least before you open the cooker. Add the chopped coriander, the remaining ghee/butter/oil and fluff it up.
With a rice cooker, you can gently fry the mustard/cumin, spices, onions and rice. Just add everything together, mix and follow the instructions according to your rice cooker.
With a pot on the stove (which is my least favourite method only because I have a terrible success rate with it), you can follow everything I’ve mentioned above. Only you won’t need the weight etc. After placing the lid, maybe check at intervals to see if the rice has enough water. Add coriander after you’ve switched the stove off.
Notes
- You could also do this in the oven, because you can add cheese at the end and then grill it. See now I wish I had an oven. Take a deep enough dish, add 1.5 tbsp of oil/ghee at the bottom (butter would burn I think), then layer with sliced onions, garlic, herbs of choice (parsley + coriander? basil + thyme??), then a can of crushed tomatoes/fresh tomato purée. Spread a cup of rice as the next layer, and then add hot water and coconut milk mixed together, then salt and chilli powder, a tsp of sugar, and give everything a good stir. Cover the dish with foil and bake for about 30 minutes (200 degree C). Remove from oven and add fresh herbs or even spinach and give it a good mix. Top it with melty cheese of choice and grill till brown. Or add soft feta and serve as is. Adjust spices etc. I now want this.
- Make the garlic-ginger-green chilli paste simply by pounding together 2 cloves of garlic, a small thumb of ginger and one small green chilli. If you only have a knife, then chop everything finely, add coarse salt (or just any salt) on top and mash with your knife. Salt is an abrasive and helps to make a paste.
- This tomato rice might sound basic (especially to my south Indian subscribers) but it’s very good. Eat with a cucumber-pomegranate-shaved carrot salad with roasted peanuts and sesame seeds? Or just yogurt/curd. Maybe add cooked chicken, idk. Rice does not judge.
- Before adding onions, you could add bacon/chorizo (everything that chorizo touches is lovely) for some heft. Or add smoked paprika, really, it’s a good cheat for smoky flavour.
- Guys, coconut milk in rice is kind of genius. I’ve been adding coconut milk powder since that’s all I have.
- The optional ingredients are really optional. If you have coriander and cumin powder, then add those. If you have nondescript curry powder, then add that!
- You could add chickpeas/kidney beans or whatever beans you have in hand. It will only add to this dish.
Miscellaneous
I’m not really above self-cross-promotion(?!). Since I’m talking about rice, would you like to read my Tumblr post on rice? It’s quite emotional and all that because I was away from home when I wrote it.
I’ve gotten back into Age of Empires again! Watching for the moment, because I don’t have the set up for playing it. What is everyone else watching/listening/bingeing etc?
One half of Eater London, and foodgod James Hansen has started a newsletter called In Digestion. The funny (or should I say punny? Haha okay I won’t) title is a big clue as to how good it is. This is a shoutout.
Another shoutout is to Vittles, an excellent newsletter by food writer Jonathan Nunn, which has news, recipes, shopping guides and more but based in London. This is hardly an eloquent way of describing his newsletter, but maybe you should check it out before I lose any steam talking about it. Okay, here it is.
I would love to hear from you, whether its an idea, a shoutout, or just a chat about Shelf Offering. Reach me at seriouscheats@gmail.com.