My mom is a wonderful, gutsy, amazing woman. Some of my first memories of her was playing volleyball with her students, her saree tucked up. She was the first person in her village to go to college. She is a sportswoman who was a sports teacher at a college in Bangalore. She treated her students like her kids; sometimes making me jealous. She was hard working and passionate about her profession. I must have imbibed that from her. She has slowed down with age, but she is still that gusty woman. I don’t think I have ever told her this, but I am so proud of her and look up to her!

My mom never cared about cooking much; maybe with her busy schedule. However, there were certain dishes that she made superbly. There were some dishes which are not common, some of them are from Coorg, others she picked up on the way. Today is her birthday and thought I would put up one of her recipes in her honor. Happy birthday, Mummy!

My mom made a lot of chutneys. One of her favourite was coriander chutney. She also made a mint chutney to go with sandwiches. I remember her making mint chutney sandwiches to take for her students when they went for day long athletic events. This is another chutney my mom makes. It does take time to make but it stays for at least a month in the fridge. The ingredients are few, but it packs a punch. It goes really well in sandwiches, idli, dosas and methi roti/theplas. I used heirloom tomatoes for this. But any tomatoes will work, preferably meaty ones.

Ingredients

• 3 kg ( approx 6 pounds) tomatoes, (try to get meaty tomatoes)
• 4 tbsp salt
• 10-12 dry red chillies (or fewer if you do not want it spicy)
• 1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
• 10 cloves garlic
• 4 tbsp oil

Directions

• Cut tomatoes in pieces. Sprinkle salt and let it sit in the fridge for a day
• Drain the tomatoes in the colander and let it sit
• Squeeze the juices out of the tomatoes
• Spread it on a pan
• Preheat oven to 200F (approx 100C)
• Place tomatoes in oven for about an hour till it dries out. (My mom dries it in the sun)
• Cool
• Grind the tomatoes with garlic, asafoetida and red chillis
• Heat oil. Add tomato mixture and fry on a low flame
• Cook for about 30 mins and keep mixing
• Cool and store in an air tight container
• Stores for at least a month, if it lasts that long