A Spicy Tomato-Peanut Chutney to Elevate Every Meal
A simple tomato peanut chutney can amp up the simplest meal, finds Srilagna Majumdar
Earlier this year, my work took me to a co-living accommodation in Madhapur, Hyderabad, where I had my very first encounter with Andhra cuisine, famous for its spicy, exuberant and flavoursome dishes.
Although in the beginning, I struggled quite a lot to cope with the extreme use of spices and gunpowder, the variety of dishes on offer amused me. Imagine heaps of vegetables being cut and minced by the cooks every evening, huge buckets of idli batter or peanut chutney, the art of making eight dosas at one time on a big tawa for breakfast, or making a delicious mango pappu in a giant vessel to accompany curd rice for dinner.
Aunty, the middle aged caretaker of the accommodation, followed a rough culinary routine through the week. On days when the primary components of the meal were too simple and bland to make the inhabitants happy, she would make her special chutney.
This peanut-tomato chutney with dried chillies, lovingly called Palli Tomato Pachadi, is a typical Rayalaseema style chutney which scores big, and is typically served alongside idli, dosa, uttapam or pesarattu. Its savoury, tangy flavours turned everyday food at the PG (which could be somewhat repetitive and boring), into a comforting delicacy. While this one has Andhra origins, the chutney is made and consumed widely in Telangana as well. It is made with basic, easily available ingredients, and tastes best when paired with a home cooked lunch: steaming hot rice, dal or sambar and some spicy vegetable curry. While most chutneys have a no-cook recipe, roasting the components a little before putting them into the grinder notches up the flavours.
Pro tip: You can regulate the spices and salt in this chutney, and add some ground mint leaves, just in case your chutney turns out spicier than you can handle.
RECIPE FOR AUNTY’S PALLI TOMATO PACHADI
Ingredients
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup peanuts with no skin
2 dried red chillies
2 cloves of garlic
For tempering
1 tsp mustard oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp urad daal
8-10 curry leaves
Method
Heat oil in a pan and sauté chopped tomatoes for about 4 minutes, till they are soft and light brown. Keep them aside to cool down.
In the same oil, fry peanuts with no skin, garlic, and dried red chillies for 2 minutes.
After the fried ingredients cool down, add everything to a blender along with required amount of salt and grind till smooth.
For the tempering, add mustard oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, urad dal, a dried chilli and curry leaves. Once it crackles and starts smelling amazing, pour this over the blended chutney.
Enjoy with hot rice-dal-curry combo, chapati-daal-curry combo, or any other home-cooked fusion.
Srilagna Majumdar is Hyderabad-based curator, researcher and cultural practitioner who works in fields of art, archiving, public history, and interdisciplinary practices.
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