Garlic Tomato Saar.

Garlic / Lasooni Tomato Saar ....... Goes well with Rice and also with any other dishes. Thanks to my sister Gayathri Kudva for this awesome saar recipe ..... though I have tweaked it a little bit ..... Yummy ......

Tomato saar is something common in every household. We Konkani Saraswats are always preparing the same at every function. The one's served in temples during festivals are the most delicious one's that too date cannot be achieved at home. It must be God's grace that makes it so. Anybody who has tasted the saar served in southern temples specially in Mangalore will vouch for it. This one is a little bit different with very minute changes. Its just that garlic is ground and added to the saar which gives it a little bit different taste from the normal ones. Otherwise the recipe remains the same. Also plain chilly powder was used in the original recipe while I have used Sambar Powder. I always add sambar powder to saar, try it, it gives you a awesome flavour ..... close to temple saar. Enjoy this saar with any dish of your choice or as plain appetizer.

Chop one large sized ripe tomato into small pieces and keep this ready aside.

Put a small marble sized tamarind in ½ cup of hot water and let soak for 10 minutes. Then extract a pulp out of it by squeezing it gently with hands. Keep this ready aside. 

Chop another large sized ripe tomato into pieces. Put this in the mixer with 12-15 roughly chopped garlic and 1 tsp jeera and grind to a smooth paste. Keep this ready aside.

Now heat 2 tblsp of ghee / oil in a thick bottomed vessel, when hot add in 1 tsp mustard seeds, when they start to crackle add in ½ tsp of jeera, 8-10 curry leaves and fry for a minute. Now add in ½ tsp of haldi powder, 1 tsp of hing powder, 1 green chilly slit into two and 2 tsp of sambar powder and fry well for a minute. 

Now add in the ground tomato paste and the finely chopped tomatoes and mix well. Add in 2-3 cups of water, a small lemon sized piece of grated jaggery and bring to a boil on high heat. 

Once the saar comes to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add in ½ cup of finely chopped coriander leaves. Garlic tomato saar is ready to be served. You can serve this with rice, pulav or as an appetizer too.