Thakkali Thokku - Brahmin Style

I am married to a Non-Brahmin...obviously love marriage. After lot of struggles I finally got married in 2007. But then my people were hesitant to accept my marriage so I could not go to my native. Over the past 2 years, seeing me pretty happy with my married life, my relatives started accepting the marriage and finally called me to my native. We took a 10 day break from our daily life schedules and decided to go to my native, his native and then complete the visit by going to temples.

I finally made it to my native which is near Trichy and I had never felt so happy before. But boy, after living in Pune for the past 2 years, Tamil Nadu was pretty hot. In spite of that we did manage to have a great time and returned back to Pune just when Navarathiri started. It was time to set the Golu. As and when I opened each carton, I prayed to God that none of the idols should have broken (since we shifted our house using Packers & Movers). To my joy everything was intact and I set my Golu.

Golu set, sundals prepared, people visited, boxes and manjal kungumam given...navarathiri was soon over. I had to get back to Chennai for office work during a long weekend which we once again combined to have a good visit to Chennai. Ended up going to City Centre, Ninaithale Inikkum and Eeram movie. Eeram movie was good as it not have the typical storyline.

I was back again in the first week of October when the Diwali sweets planning started. Since I am a novice in cooking, I decided to order them from an excellent cook. Ended up ordering athirasam, ribbon pakoda, badam cake, mixture and ladoo. Of course inji marundhu was a complement. Everything was sent via Professional Courier which of course invariably delayed it and we ended up getting the sweets after Diwali. But then I was not complaining much since I ended up going on my 3rd Honeymoon to Thailand (Bangkok & Pattaya) during the Diwali weekend.

After 2 months of dilly dallying with cooking, I finally started getting into my regular schedule. I was searching for Thakkali Thokku - Brahmin style. I was not satisfied with the search results, so I decided to ask my Patti for the original style. Finally here we go with the recipe:

Ingredients

Tomato - 1/2 kg
Tamarind - 1 small amla or nellikai size
Oil - 3 tbsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Chilli Powder - as per taste
Jaggery - a little bit (optional)

Preparation

Grind the tomatoes along with the tamarind in a mixer (This is easier rather than cutting it into small pieces). Heat the oil, add mustard. Once it splutters, add the ground mixture, turmeric, salt, chilli powder and jaggery. Once the water evaporates, the mixture will start leaving the sides. The thokku is done when the oil starts oozing out.

Thakkali Thokku is ready and yummy!!! This will stay on for 15 days if refrigerated.

~ Ramya