Tangled Branches: Satiated
riveting tales of how we sustain ourselves
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Tomatoes in Spicy Yogurt Sauce
This is an Indianish recipe from the August issue of Sunset magazine. 'Thai Pink' tomatoes are absolutely perfect here, but I bet they suggested larger tomatoes because they didn't want to frighten away those who may not want to peel a zillion tomatoes. OK, not a zillion - just 18 or so.
We liked this dish a lot, but I didn't make it as written. I think they have too many cumin seeds, too much garlic, and too much butter. My changes are as follows: 1 tsp. cumin seeds, 2 tsp. brown mustard seeds, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. butter, and a generous 1/2 tsp. Japanese sea salt. And I didn't seed the chile peppers. And of course, I substituted 'Thai Pink' tomatoes instead of 'Early Girl'.
Also, unless you have very fresh yogurt, it will probably curdle on you. I'd suggest stabilizing the yogurt with cornstarch first - a trick I learned from Claudia Roden's A Book of Middle Eastern Food. For 1 cup of yogurt, mix about 1/2 tsp cornstarch with a little cold water to make a thin paste. Beat the yogurt in a saucepan, and add the cornstarch paste and a pinch of salt. Stirring constantly, bring the yogurt to a boil over medium-low heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened and smooth. Now, I must confess that I didn't actually do this. I made the recipe 3 times; the first time it cooked beautifully with no curdling, the second time it curdled horribly, and the third time it was somewhere in between. The next time I make it, I'm not taking chances.
I initially served this with lamb burgers (seasoned with garlic/ginger/chile paste and curry powder). Both the spouse and I thought the combination tasted something like the Turkish Yogurtlu Kebab, as an Indian cook might make it.
The second and third times I served it as part of an Indian vegetarian meal. We liked it either way.
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