Sun-dried/oven-dried tomato coconut thogayal

How do you come up with new recipes? Or new variations on old recipes? According to what I’ve read about professional chefs and from what semi-professional food bloggers write on their super-professional looking blogs, they spend hours (days, weeks, years... a lifetime?) experimenting with new flavours and colours and fusions and whatnot. They’re never discouraged by failure, they never tire of trying the same recipe over and over until they get it right, they spend every spare moment away from their actual jobs on perfecting a recipe – and when the dish makes its triumphal entry onto a menu or a blog, it’s to the exciting fanfare of self-blown trumpets ably backed up by the fluting of friends, fans and family.

All very impressive, and all very well... but what I’ve always wanted to know is - who actually eats the end results of those endless experimentations? It’s easy enough with the successful results, but what if the recipe isn’t to anybody’s taste? What about the downright failures? (Ok, the dustbin would be the grateful recipient there, fair enough.) What about the not-so-successful-but-not-dumpworthy-either results? These experimentally creative folk must have mighty accommodating families. Because mine, sadly, isn’t made that way. My family is thrilled to eat the nice things but completely remorseless about shunning the less edible. And if something is not to their taste made one way, there’s no chance that they’d try it made some other way – ESPECIALLY on an experimental basis.

Can’t blame them. I’m that way too. If a recipe is a failure for whatever reason, I never look back. I certainly don’t have the patience or the willingness to try it different ways till I hit upon the right one. There are billions of recipes out there, a few million of which I want to try, so repeatedly trying one recipe just isn’t going to happen. Plus, there’s the question of cost, not to mention food wastage. I’m the first to admit that I could probably do much better in the latter department, so deliberately making something again that wasn’t a success the first time around – nope, not happening.

Now, how I happen upon recipes is through sheer chance - I don't have the imagination or the creativity to actively invent something. My kind of invention is passive. Oh bother, there's that bit of stuff left, I don't want to store it in a teeny box in the fridge... heck, let's see what happens if I just use it in this recipe. And that's how my variations evolve. This one came about because I wanted to finish up the last of the oven-dried tomatoes I'd made two weeks back. So much for experimentation...

Recipe for: Sundried/ovendried tomato coconut thogayal

Ingredients:

1/3 cup grated coconut
2 tbsp sundried or oven-dried tomatoes (not the kind packed in oil)
marble sized piece of dried tamarind OR 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
4-8 dried red chillies (or to taste)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tsp urad dal
10-12 curry leaves
1/8 tsp asafoetida powder
2 tsp oil
Salt to taste
4-6 tbsp hot water as required

Method:

1. Rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain off the water and reserve.


2. Heat the oil in a small pan, then add the asafoetida powder, red chillies, curry leaves, urad dal and garlic, and fry it all on medium heat, stirring, till the dal turns golden brown.


3. Cool, then grind the above (reserving 1/2 tsp of the fried dal) along with 2 tsp coconut and the tamarind to a smooth paste. Then add the rehydrated tomatoes and the rest of the coconut, adding 3-4 tbsp hot water, and grind again to a smooth paste.


4. Remove to a bowl and add salt to taste and the reserved fried urad dal, mixing well to combine thoroughly.

5. Serve with a dollop of ghee/nallennai (gingelly oil) added to steamed rice, or as a side dish for dosas, chapathis, idlis etc.

RECIPE: SUNDRIED/OVENDRIED TOMATO COCONUT THOGAYAL

Ingredients:

1/3 cup grated coconut
2 tbsp sundried or oven-dried tomatoes (not the kind packed in oil)
marble sized piece of dried tamarind OR 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
4-8 dried red chillies (or to taste)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tsp urad dal
10-12 curry leaves
1/8 tsp asafoetida powder
2 tsp oil
Salt to taste
4-6 tbsp hot water as required

Method:

1. Rehydrate the sun-dried tomatoes in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain off the water and reserve.
2. Heat the oil in a small pan, then add the asafoetida powder, red chillies, curry leaves, urad dal and garlic, and fry it all on medium heat, stirring, till the dal turns golden brown.
3. Cool, then grind the above (reserving 1/2 tsp of the fried dal) along with 2 tbsp coconut and the tamarind to a smooth paste. Then add the rehydrated tomatoes and the rest of the coconut, adding 3-4 tbsp hot water, and grind again to a smooth paste.
4. Remove to a bowl and add salt to taste and the reserved fried urad dal, mixing well to combine thoroughly.
5. Serve with a dollop of ghee/nallennai (gingelly oil) added to steamed rice, or as a side dish for dosas, chapathis, idlis etc.