India is said to be the original home of the relish, with an array to match every one if its equally vast variety of street-food snack.
Imagine pakora without relish? It’s like pasta without sauce or pizza without a topping. It’s just not done
We want a relish to have a little sweetness, some acidity and a sticky syrupy texture. When making home-made chutneys we don’t always have easy access to guangoo-gum or glucose-dextra-malthese, nevermind E007.
Reliant only on natural ingredients we are forced to extract syrupiness from sugars and acidity from the natural sharpness of tomatoes.
Sweet & Spicy Indian Tomato Relish
Ingredients
- 1/2 kilo tomatoes use skinned large tomatoes or whole small sweet vine tomatoes
- 1 large onion
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 3-4 green chillies
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 heaped tbsp thick-set honey
Optional Ingredients
- 1 tsp toasted cumin, fennel or black onion seeds
- 1 tsp freshly ground garam masala
- 1 handful chopped fresh coriander & / or mint
- lemon juice or vinegar to taste
- pommegranite molasses to taste
- extra salt or honey to taste
Instructions
- Finely chop the onion and garlic or blend to a paste in a food processor and soften in a little oil for 5 minutes
- Meanwhile peel larger tomatoes by plunging in boiling water for 25 seconds. Cut the tomatoes into small chunks or briefly blitz them in a food processor
- Add the tomatoes to the onions along with the green chillies. Saute for 5 minutes, then add the salt
- Cover and simmer for an hour or longer until all the water has evaporated. You'll need to give the mixture your attention towards the end of cooking so it doesn't stick or burn
- Add the sugar, honey or fruit-based nectar with a couple of tablespoons of water and cook gently until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is syrupy with a consistency pleasing to your taste
- Check the taste and add any combination of the optional ingredients. Check our garam masala recipe here
- Serve warm or cold with samosa, pappadum or other snacks
- Store the remainder in a sealed sterilized jar with a fine layer of oil over the top and refrigerate