The climate in India suited this member of the Solanaceae family, Meghna Kashyap says, and several varieties began to be grown across the subcontinent
Ever since tomatoes began selling for Rs 120 a kilo, rants and jokes on social media haven’t stopped. “I wonder what the hullabaloo is all about?” asks food anthropologist Meghna Kashyap. “It isn’t like this sub-continent ever ate tomatoes before the Portuguese got them along in the 16th Century.” The climate in India suited this member of the Solanaceae family, she says, and several varieties began to be grown across the subcontinent.
She underlines how cuisines across the subcontinent have had their own locally-sourced souring agents. “While most of peninsular India relied on lemon or tamarind, the north has always used dried raw mango (amchur) powder, while the Western coastal region has used kokum. Seasonal fruits like Spondias (ambada) or the sour Roselle leaves (gongura) have been used in the Deccan plateau and the Krishna-Godavari basins.” According to her, most of these souring agents are still available and can provide a nice back-to-roots twist to usual recipes which have come to incorporate tomatoes over time.
Executive chef at of deGustibus Hospitality, Jaydeep Mukherjee, echoes Kashyap. “I will advice those cooking at home to look for cheaper alternatives like tetra packs of pureed tomatoes till the prices drop.” We ask him if he has made that change himself and he is quick to point out that in a fine-dining restaurant it is not an option. “I don’t have the luxury of changing either the menu or the ingredients every time the prices change. In fact, for cooking at the restaurant one has to choose not only the exact ingredients but also the freshest and best quality.”
Other celebrated chefs like Rajeev Bhadani too insist there is a lot one can do with recipes which conventionally use tomatoes, by using tamarind or lemon. “The right kind of onion-based gravy with ginger garlic paste, using one of these souring agents one can even cook non-vegetarian curries.”
A cook at one of Goregaon’s well known Udupi joints let out another secret on condition of anonymity. “We have switched to tamarind for souring and we have begun adding pureed ash gourd for the gravy’s thick base.”
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