Thakkali Kuzhambu / Tomato Coconut Curry

                             
                                 Tastespotted,  Foodgawked
I have brewed my Christmas wine, baked the cookies today and will be ready with the cakes next week!
      Hope you too are catching up with the festival with loads of homemade goodies..

Something which excites about past week is that my traffic has peaked up in spite of  being the dullest month of the year. In fact the past two weeks had earned the most hits ever!
I had always consoled myself and thought December is the right month to take a break from blogging with less visitors coming in because of fun and festivity and holidays all around. But alas, the opening of the month is here with all the pleasantest surprises!

In between making the wine and cookies , I made this tomato coconut curry for dinner, hot and spicy with crispy dosas. The crepes and the curry went extremely well and was apt for the winter evening!
As most of the recipes, I learnt this from my in-laws and is a regular dish at least once a month for dinner. The curry goes well with steamed rice but my in-laws strictly have the curry with dosas / idlies.

Here goes..

Tomato Coconut Curry
To serve 2-3

Ingredients:

Roast and grind to a smooth paste:

Oil- 2-3 tsps
Big onion- 1 medium sized, sliced lengthwise thinly
Pottukadalai / roasted gram - 1 tbsp
Red chillies- 4 nos or chilly powder-3/4 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Ripe red tomatoes - 2 medium, sliced to bite size pieces
Coconut- 1/2 cup

To season:

Oil - 2-3 tsps
Mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp
Sliced small onions- a tbsp
Curry leaves- one sprig

Cubed potatoes- 1 cup
Salt- to taste

Method:

Heat oil (to roast and grind) in a thick bottomed kadai. Roast the chillies and keep aside. (if you use chilly powder you can use it later) Throw in onions. While it is translucent add in roasted gram. Sauté both, followed by the powders (chilly powder, if you use instead of chillies, coriander and turmeric) in a very low heat taking care not to burn the powders. If you feel the heat is too much, put off the stove and mix.
Sauté sliced tomatoes and while it is mushy and cooked, mix in the freshly grated coconut. Mix it along well for just a few seconds(say, 30 secs) and switch off the stove. Let it cool.

In the meanwhile, heat oil (for seasoning) in a larger vessel ( because we are going to mix the ground paste  after the seasoning and make the curry in this one). Splutter mustard seeds, caramelize the onions, throw in the curry leaves and pour 1/2- 1 cup of water. Add the potatoes, once the water simmers and close it over low heat. Add salt. Switch off when the potatoes are half done.

Or, while it gets cooked, grind the roasted ingredients to a smooth paste adding a little water.
Mix in the paste, carefully without lumps, along with the potatoes in the pan . Check the consistency. It should neither be too thick nor thin. Check salt. Simmer the curry  gently for  5 minutes. Serve warm with dosas/ idlies!

I am off to Pondy and Chennai for the weekend. So I may not be able to blog hop in return.
See you next week :)

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