Thursday 23 February 2006

From My Rasoi # 3 - Cooking For Love

Meenakshi Agarwal of Hooked On Heat has been organising an event called From My Rasoi. This time the theme is Cooking For Love. For the 1st time I'm participating in an event. This is fun. It is a great theme as love plays a very important role in cooking. One has to love to cook in order to cook well. Cooking done with love and care tastes totally different.

Cooking and baking has been my passion since young. My father liked my cooking. Everytime I bring home the food that I cooked in school, he would eat them very proudly. He would tell my mom, "my daughter cooked this". After his death, I had stopped cooking. I could not cook well as there were nobody to appreciate it.

When I was 14, my Home Science teacher, Mrs Sundralingam, thought us that To Win A Man's Heart Is Thru His Stomach. Since then, her golden words has stuck in my mind, forever. Have been cooking and baking a lot since I got married. I felt that it is my duty to feed my husband. Like my father, my husband appreciated my cooking. He loved my baked goodies. His endless encouragements boosted me up to become a better cook. He bought me a digicam so that I can snap pictures of my cooking for keep sake and to be posted in food forums. Now that I have started blogging, the camera is more useful.

I had been baking a cake for each of my daughter´s monthly birth anniversaries. For her 1st birthday, I baked and frosted a number 1 shaped cake. When she cut it, there were tears in my eyes. I was overjoyed to see her cutting her 1st ever birthday cake baked by her amma. At that very moment, I decided that I am going to bake all my childrens´ birthday cakes as long as I am alive. It won't be just a normal cake. It is a mixture of love, passion and care baked up.

This recipe that I have chosen to cook for love is Date and Tomato Chutney. It has been sitting in my list to do for quite a while. The reason I chose it is that this dish contains many tastes and flavours which is how love is supposed to be; tasty and full of flavours.

Date and Tomato Chutney


What do we need:

1 cup dates, stoned and chopped
1 large tomato, skinned and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 inch ginger, chopped finely
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 tsp chilli powder (depends to individual)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste

How do we do it:

Heat oil and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to splutter, add onion and ginger. Sauté just slightly. Do not fry for long.

Add the dates and tomatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir to mix well. Cook on low heat for about 30 to 40 minutes.



Date and tomato chutney is best eaten with rotis. I ate by spreading it on a slice of toast. I like this chutney very much. Hope that anyone who tries it would like it as well.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi pushpa,
Great to see that u've started your own food blog. Great pictures & the food are awesome. :)

Unknown said...

Komala, welcome to my blog. Glad tat u found ur way here. Thanx.

Anonymous said...

Hi Puspha, nice blog. Yummy yummy food picture and a good cook/baker.

Unknown said...

Thanx Amelia

sailu said...

This chutney recipe is interesting.

Unknown said...

Sailu, do give it a try. I like the taste very much. Guess u would also like it. :)

Luv2cook said...

Hi Pushpa:

Thank you for your welcome comment on my blog. I have made date chutney before for samosas but haven't heard of the date tomato chutney. I will have to give it a try :).

I also wanted to let you know that I added you to my blogroll.

Unknown said...

luv2cook: Welcome to my blog. Thanx for adding me in ur blogroll. I´m honoured.

Give it a try & let me know the difference between the 2.

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