This recipe of tamatar bonda has a special story associated with it. When I was a research scholar at the department of botany at Banaras Hindu University, in the mid nineties there was a chaiwala at the 'botany crossing'. Usually he used to make samosas and chai , but whenever there was a rain he would always make this 'tamatar chop' as he would call it, and we friends (including now my husband Arvind) used to rush to the shop, as the bondas would disappear fast they were in such high demand. They used to be straight out of the kadhai very very hot and I remember the way we used to dig into the soft tomatoes, so hot to handle that often somebody would get a scalded tongue..
Eating those tamatar chops in the rain is still a nostalgia inducing memory and even now when it rains we both remember that and I have to get going. Food always brings sweet memories.
see how the tamatar bonda a chop gets going when you want it...
Microwave 2 large potatoes and till they are cooling to be peeled, scoop the flesh out of 4 large tomatoes......like this......
Chop an onion, few green chillies, 2 springs of coriander leaves and a bit of a ginger root finely. Peel the potatoes, which must be cool enough to handle by now. Mash it and mix with the chopped ingredients. Mix in salt n pepper to taste.......some chaat masala too if the tomatoes are not sour.......
Now stuff this potato mix into the hollow tomatoes and keep aside.........
Heat oil in a deep pan to deep fry these bondas and till the oil gets hot, make a besan batter for dipping the bondas.
For the batter, take 3/4 cup of besan into a bowl and throw in salt n pepper to taste.......
a tbsp of ginger garlic paste, a tsp of haldi, now pour water slowly to make a thick coating batter......
Now dip each stuffed tomato into the batter and dip into the pan to deep fry, turning it to let it fry evenly.
Serve hot with a chutney of your choice. Normally I make a chutney with the scooped out tomato flesh with some coriander leaves but this time being quick served it with a preserved (pickled) green garlic chutney which tasted awesome with it.
And this is the inside view, the cross section of the tamatar bonda...
For making the process easier, you can halve the tomatoes , scoop out the flesh and fill the potato mix to make a round shape, dip into the batter and fry in the same manner........see how it looks...
Eat it hot to make my phone pictres worth.....with or without chutney.........
