Tomatoes are no longer the added ingredient in any gravy or a spicy dish. A whole single dish can be centred around this juicy vegetable. The tomato curry at Kastoori’s in Tooting, London is relished by all its customers. The recipe here reproduces the dish in a way it can be made at home.
All the goodness of ripe tomatoes comes out best in this creamy and strongly flavored dish. Go ahead and try out this refreshing new dish.
Serves 4
40g butter
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
50g fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 large hot green chilli, chopped (remove the seeds if you like)
6-7 curry leaves 1 tsp ground cumin
Seeds from 5 cardamom pods
10 tomatoes, cored and split in two widthways
Salt
75g creamed coconut dissolved in 5-6 tbsp boiling water
Squeeze of lime juice, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh coriander, chopped, to garnish
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed shallow pot or frying pan. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, curry leaves, cumin and cardamom. Allow the spices to stew gently before laying the tomatoes on top, skin side down. Lightly salt their surfaces and spoon over the coconut cream.
Loosely cover and set over an extremely low heat. Much of the juice from the tomatoes will form a sauce, helped along by the creamed coconut. When this is coming along nicely, baste the tomatoes with the sauce to amalgamate the coconut cream.
When the dish is ready – after about 30 minutes – the tomatoes should still have their shape and the sauce will be slightly separated but creamy in parts (if it seems too dry, add a little water). Squeeze over the lime juice, grind on the pepper and sprinkle with coriander. It’s best served at room temperature.
