I am so excited to finally share this recipe! I’ve held onto it for 6 months waiting for summer tomatoes to come into season. An eclectic mix of three cultures all come together in this beautiful dish. This amazing recipe comes to you from Jamie Oliver.

• 

• 

I was watching one of his cooking shows titled Ultimate Veg on PBS Network when he made this gorgeous looking tomato curry. It was mouthwatering! But I knew for it to taste phenomenal (which it is BTW) I would have to wait until summer so I could use fresh summer garden tomatoes.

What made the recipe so appealing? For one, I rarely see a non-Indian chef use mustard seeds or fenugreek seeds or cumin seeds, or curry leaves for that matter in a recipe. These are so uniquely South Asian that they hardly ever show up in a recipe made by celebrity chefs. So imagine my pleasant surprise when here I see Jamie Oliver making a dish with all these flavorful spices!

This is a very unique recipe which combines South Asian flavors with Middle Eastern spice such as saffron and Thai/Malaysian flavors such as coconut milk. Here is an added twist – Jamie Oliver even adds what I call western flavor -a couple of teaspoons of jam! Jam gives the dish a nice sweetness that tastes awesome with tomatoes!

This is a fun dish to make with beautiful results. Gorgeous bright red tomatoes in a golden colored broth made with garlic, ginger and onions all flavored with cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds and saffron. How yummy does that sound!

• 

I have to mention that a giant bag of homegrown tomatoes from my neighbor Jim is what provided the gorgeous tomatoes for this curry!

And now on to the recipe.

The steps may look intimidating but in all honesty this is one easy curry to make. First blanch the tomatoes so the skin is easy to peel off. Then get ready to make the curry. Shallow fry all the spices for a few seconds, then add the ginger, garlic and onions and shallow fry for a bit. Add the tomatoes, saffron, coconut milk and cook for about 20 minutes. Add in the jam for that extra bit of pizzazz. Season with salt and pepper and voila! A deliciously sweet and savory curry made with bright red tomatoes. Give it a try!

Amazing Tomato Curry
recipe by Jamie Oliver from the cookbook Ultimate Veg

Ingredients:

1. 6-8 tomatoes – blanched in a pot of bowling water for 1 minute. Peel the skin and set the tomatoes aside.
2. 1 onion cut into big pieces
3. 1 inch piece of ginger finely grated
4. 5 cloves of garlic minced
5. 6-8 curry leaves
6. 1 tsp mustard seeds
7. 1 tsp cumin seeds
8. 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
9. 1 can coconut milk
10. Salt and pepper
11. 2 dried red chilies
12. 2 tsp mango chutney (I used apricot jam!)
13. Cilantro for garnish
14. 2 tbsp oil

Directions:

In a large pot warm oil. Add the mustard seeds and let them pop. Cover the pot to prevent the seeds from popping over the counter. Once done popping add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chilies and curry leaves. Fry in oil for 5 seconds. Add the garlic, ginger, and onion. Cook the onions until they are tender about 5 minutes.

• 

• 

• 

Next add the tomatoes, saffron water, coconut milk, and salt to taste. Stir and cover the pot. Cook the tomatoes for 20 minutes.

• 

• 

• 

Add the jam and black pepper. Stir and continue to cook for 5 more minutes. Turn the stove off. Add the lemon juice and fresh cilantro. Taste and adjust for salt.

Serve warm with a steaming bowl of rice.

Ultimate Veg by Jamie Oliver