Quick Tomato Peanut Chutney

I don’t know if I like weekends or not. It seems like they fly by faster than a weekday and I always end up wondering on Sunday night, what the heck I did in the last 48 hrs. My mind is buzzing with things to do for the weekend on Friday night, but come Saturday morning, all planning and to-do lists get scraped and NOTHING gets done. It’s like “Busy with no business”.

This post is not about my “nothing got done weekend”, but about “at last something got done weekend”. So I was very proactive on Friday morning; soaked some urad dal and parboiled rice for idlis, prepared the batter that night and left it to ferment until Sunday morning (With the cold Northeast winter weather, it takes about 24 hrs to have a nicely fermented batter).

But on Sunday morning I was short of time to make my usual peanut-coconut chutney, so I made this equally tasty and quick chutney that my mom usually makes. I keep store-bought unsalted roasted peanuts in my pantry all the time, but if you don’t have these, simply roast some in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes – 2 medium, chopped into big chunks
Green chilies – 2, slit
Garlic – 1 clove, crushed
Roasted Peanuts – ¼ cup
Tamarind extract – 2tsp (or more to taste)
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Dry red chili – 1
Curry leaves – 4-6 (I didn’t have any on hand)

Method:

• In a microwave safe bowl, take tomatoes, garlic and green chilies and microwave covered for 3-4 minutes until the tomatoes turn into a mush.
• Remove and cool for a little bit before grinding them into smooth chutney with the peanuts, tamarind extract, salt and water (use as needed).
• When I don’t have time to wait for the tomatoes to cool, I use my immersion blender and blend all the ingredients while still hot.
• Heat 1tsp oil in a small saucepan and add the mustard seeds and dry red chili; once the seeds start to splutter, add to the chutney, mix well and enjoy with your pillow-soft idlis* or crispy dosas.

Chutney keeps well in the fridge for at least 3-4 days.

* To make Idlis: Soak 1 cup Urad dal (Minapappu) and 2 cups Parboiled rice separately for 4-6 hours. Grind dal into a smooth paste using little water, next grind rice into a coarse paste. Mix them together with 1tsp salt and set aside until frothy and fermented (about 8-12 hours in warmer temps or up to 24hrs in colder weather).

Since this is a bookmarked recipe, courtesy Amma, I'm sending this chutney off to Aipi's Bookmarked Recipe-Every Tuesday event.