Sweet Tomato Pachadi

I love this pahadi/chutney/jam or whatever you call it that they serve at most tamilian weddings.  The guy who serves this generally puts half a teaspoon of this chutney on your leaf and vanishes even before you can think of calling him back for a little more.  And considering the other sweets and  food they serve, you would feel a glutton asking for a second helping.  I was really glad when Jeyashri Suresh gave a link to the article that appeared about her in The Hindu that featured this recipe.  And I made this right away... and had a generous helping, enjoying every bit of it.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 4
Tomato purée - 4 tbsp ( the tomatoes I used where not very juicy)
Sugar - about 1/2 cup - taste for sweetness and add if necessary
Dates - 2-3 deseeded *
Cashew - few
Raisins - few
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces.
Take in a pan.  Add 1/4 cup water and sugar and simmer for about 20 mins or more
To speed up the process you could microwave it for a while
I added some purée here.
Make sure the tomatoes really get mushy.  Add more sugar if required.
Bring the mixture to the consistency of a thick chutney.

Take a tablespoon of ghee. Heat.  Add cashew, raisins and dates - separately - and add to the chutney.

I made this at lunch time and it was fabulous with curd rice!
You could have it with puris and rotis too.

Note -
These are approximate measures.  If you want to make it more like jam you would need about 1 1/2 measures of sugar to the tomato pieces.
* I did not have dates, but it still tasted good.