Green Tomato Chutney

Mapusa Market, Goa

Friday is market day in Mapusa, a small town in the heart of Bardez district in Goa. It's madness there, picking your way through cauliflowers, cabbage, and beans of all kind. And baby clothes, plastic tablecloths and small wooded stools. And 'antiques', bedcovers and herbal medicines. Plus the tribal women from Karnataka, women with their mirror worked cloth bags waiting to make a killing on some unsuspecting soul, who is most likely to be an Indian tourist. It's amazing how European and British tourists learn, in two days flat, how to drive a hard bargain. It is more difficult to extract a 1 rupee coin out of a backpacker's pocket than to perform dental surgery. So the tribal women are in for some more rude shocks during the day.

Meanwhile we enjoy the riot of colour, the smells of dried fish and spices, the goan sausages and papayas and the sounds of a thousand voices in Konkani .
Since I'm into low calorie and vegetarian recipes right now I see the vegetables more than anything else. Tomatoes are all over the place. Green tomatoes particularly caught my eye. I never seem to get them when I want them. Some Portuguese recipes  and, by association, Goan ones too call for tomate verde ( let me clarify, these are not Tomatillos ). Right now In Maharashtra, the tomatoes have been harvested and are a brillant red. Just right for puree but not for chutney. Here is one of my favourite green tomato chutney recipes.

Green Tomatoes, Mapusa, Goa

Ingredients:

2 apples
1 kg green tomatoes
1/4 kg sambar onions (shallots)
1 clove garlic, crushed
150 gm kismis / raisins
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh grated ginger
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
400 ml / 2 full cups malt vinegar
175 gms brown demerara sugar or half brown sugar and half jaggery

Peel the apples, remove the core and chop into pieces.Make fine slices from the tomatoes. Chop the shallots .

In a pressure cooker put layers of tomato slices, apples and onions. Add the garlic, raisins, salt , ginger, chilli powder, and half the vinegar.Close cooker and put on the weight. Cook for 10 minutes after first whistle.Take off the fire and bring pressure down by holding the cooker under a running tap.Open the cooker, stir in the gur and brown sugar and the rest of the vinegarMix well..Now let the mixture simmer in the open cooker till the chutney thickens. Stir often to ensure it does not stick to the bottom of the cooker.When the chutney is the right consistency and fairly thick, take off fire and fill sterilized jars with the mixture upto 1/2 inch from the top. Cover jars whiile still hot.
Keep refrigerated after opening.
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This is quick to make, a lovely accompaniment to any Indian dish, yummy with roti and good with any meat dish, Indian or Western.

Comments

[Ashwini]

Hi, you seem to travel a lot! Green tomato chutney is my favorite. Not to mention Mapusa market - there is such a choreography to the chaos! Are you from that region originally? Btw have linked your sorghum bread recipe. Check it out. Also read in one of your earlier posts about a book you have on Saraswat cuisine. Am very interested (since I am Saraswat!). I have Shalini Nadkarni and Rasachandrika. Could you tell me more about it? Thanks

[deccanheffalump]

Hi Ashwini,
I love travelling! Any weekend sees us heading out of town especially the weather is so balmy.

The book on Saraswat cooking is being reprinted to come out early next year. More about that when I get more information.

[Sonali]

Great Blog! You seem to have travelled a lot & know a lot of Indian & Western Cuisines. It is really nice to read knowledgable posts on different foods.

Are you a Maharashtrian ?

-Sonali

[aroti]

I love your site and I love INDIA. I am indian too, but I just was born in Calcutta: now I am living in Italy with my adoptive parents.
I miss indian spicies and local meal and I love cooking so I will nextly comeback.
kisses

[deccanheffalump]

Sonali, Thanks for your comments.I confess I am Maharashtrian .
Aroti I like the look of your blog too and I LOVE Italy.The food, the art,the countryside, the people.Everything!!

[Sonali]

Okay cool. I am one too :). Check out my food blog....just started.

[GUYOT Benoît]

Bonjour, nice recipe, but I'd like to know where can I purchase the Jaggery sugar ?

[steamy kitchen]

wonderful recipe - i'm trying it this afternoon