Sweet Tomato Chutney

We had bumper crop of tomatoes in our kitchen garden this year. It was raining tomatoes, so i decided to search for a chutney recipe on the Internet and stumbled upon this awesome recipe. Believe me, this chutney it scrumptious. You can have it with anything, be it toast, parantha, chapatis, etc. It is sweet, tangy and savory. It is a little lengthy process but the result is worth it plus it is really easy.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1.5 - 2 hours
Makes 3-4 cups of chutney

Ingredients:

• 1 garlic bulb(peeled and roughly chopped)
• 1 inch ginger(roughly chopped)
• 1 ½ cup vinegar
• 1 kg fresh tomatoes chopped
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder
• 2 tbsp golden raisins
• 2 tbsp almonds

Put garlic, ginger and ½ cup vinegar into a blender and blend until smooth. Keep aside.

Soak raisins and almonds in hot water for 15 minutes. Peel and chop the almonds. Keep aside.

In a heavy bottom, without a metallic finish pan(the vinegar erodes the metallic finish) combine the tomatoes, rest of the vinegar, salt, sugars and chilli powder. Bring to a boil, add the garlic-ginger puree and lower the heat.

Let the mix simmer gently uncovered for around 2 hours, until the chutney is thick and coats a spoon dipped. Stir occasionally to prevent it from sticking to bottom of the pan. You will have to lower the flame more when chutney starts thickening.

Check for seasoning, I personally added more salt and chilli than the recipe asked for. You should always taste the food while cooking.  Add the raisins and almonds and cumin. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Remove it for heat and let it cool. You should end up with chutney as thick as honey. Store it in refrigerator in a dry, air tight glass bottle.

Either serve with rotis, paranthas or use as a spread or dip. Enjoy!!!