Go Pearl Diving at Home! Poondu Rasam or Garlic Soup

Go Pearl Diving at Home with...
POONDU RASAM or GARLIC SOUP

Rasam is a flavourful watery soup served with rice as a second course in a South Indian meal, the first being the Sambar and rice. Once rasam is made, the heavier dals and spices settle at the bottom of the vessel, leaving the nutrient rich and flavourful watery liquid at the top. This liquid is light, and excellent for digestion. Both the light liquid, a well as the rich dal residue can be taken with rice based on preferences.

In South Indian weddings more and more people are opting for at least one buffet meal, instead of the traditional meal served on banana leaves. For a long time rasam was not served in buffets as it was impossible to handle the watery dish in a hand-held dinner plate filled with various other dishes. Gauging people’s taste and demand the caterers have now a days started to include rasam-rice in their menu.

The unanimous choice of mothers whose babies have just been introduced to solids is the one and only rasam rice. A few spoons of softly cooked rice and dal mashed well with rasam and a drop of ghee is relished by most babies. My siblings and I have grown up solely on rasam rice almost up to the age of ten.

My three children were especially fond of Poondu Rasam or Garlic Rasam. The cloves of garlic in the rasam will settle down at the bottom of the vessel. The scene of my three children, each with a ladle in hand, competing as to who should ‘pearl-dive’ first to get the ‘pearls’ or the garlic cloves from the bottom of the rasam vessel is still fresh in my memory.

Ingredients for the spicy rasam powder:
Pepper _ 2 tsps
Cumin seeds – 2 tsps
Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp
Bengal gram dal – 1 tbsp
Dry red chillies – 4
Methi (Fenugreek seeds) – ¼ tsp
Pressure cook tur dal with turmeric powder in 3 cups of water.
Method for spicy rasam powder:
1. Dry roast pepper and cumin seeds and keep aside.
2. In a drop of oil, roast asafoetida, coriander seeds, bengal gram dal, fenugreek seeds and red chillies until they become crisp and golden in colour.
3. Powder all the roasted ingredients and keep aside. This is freshly prepared spicy rasam powder. While more quantities can be made an stored in air tight containers - rasam tastes best with freshly ground spices.

Ingredients for Garlic Rasam
Tur dal (Red gram dal) – 1 cup
Turmeric powder -1 pinch
Tamarind – enough to make a lime-sized ball
Salt -2 tsps
Garlic – cloves from three big pods
Tomatoes -2
Curry leaves –a few
Ghee -1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Coriander leaves – a few
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Method for Garlic Rasam:
1. Pressure cook tur dal with turmeric powder in 3 cups of water, and keep aside.
2. Extract the juice out of the tamarind and add water to make ½ a pint and add salt.
3. Peel the skin of the garlic cloves. Add to the tamarind water, and boil until they are cooked.
4. Add cooked dal , chopped tomatoes, and curry leaves .
5. Add little water to the spicy rasam powder and make a paste, and then add it to the rasam .
6. Stir and blend well until it starts to boil.
7. Add ½ more pint of water and decrease heat.
8. Add coriander leaves and allow the rasam to gather lots of bubbles on the top.
9. Note: Remove rasam from flame just before it starts to boil, as boiling mars the flavour.
10. Heat ghee and add mustard seeds and pour it on to the rasam after it splutters.

Enjoy the watery top portion of the rasam in a glass as an appetizer or relish the thick spicy dal and garlic residue with steaming hot rice topped with a spoon of ghee.

Kottravaraikkai Paruppu Usili - Cluster Beans and Lentils Dry Curry

Kottravaraikkai Paruppu Usili

Cluster Beans Lentil Dry Curry

Usili is a dry preparation with dal and vegetables. Dal in the form of usili, is a pleasant change from the usual liquid and mushy forms such as sambar. Paruppu usili is served as one of the curries in feasts.

One of our friends, who happens to be a media celebrity, loves this dish very much. As his career demands him to be trim and slim, he is very careful about his meals. Since he has taken a liking to this dish, he relishes a bowlful of the Usili and washes it down with a glass of buttermilk. That is it, and he is done with his lunch!

Ingredients:
Tur dal (Red Gram Dal) – ½ cup
Bengal gram dal – ½ cup
Dry red chillies – 4
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Salt -3/4 tsp
Finely chopped Kottravaraikkai (Cluster beans) – 1 cup
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Cooking oil - 2 tbsps or more
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Urad dal (Black Gram Dal) – 1 tsp
Curry leaves –a few

Method:
1.. Soak both the Red Gram and Bengal Gram dals along with the dry red chillies for ½ an hour.
2. Cut cluster beans finely, and cook with enough water and a pinch of salt and keep it aside.
3. Drain the soaked dals and chillies thoroughly, and grind along with asafoetida and salt, into a coarse mixture. Take care not to over-grind into a paste.
4 Heat oil in a wok and add mustard seeds.
5 . When mustard splutters add black gram dal and roast till it is golden in colour.
6. Next add turmeric powder, curry leaves, followed by the cooked cluster beans.
7. Sauté till water evaporates, and the benas are dry, then add the ground dal mixture and mix thoroughly.
8. Spread the whole mass evenly inside the wok and cover with a lid.
9. Cook over low fire for about 3 minutes, until the dal is cooked.
10. Now remove lid and turn the vegetable and dal mix and again spread it evenly inside the wok and continue to cook in low fire, this time without the lid.
11. Keep turning and spreading out the dal and vegetable mixture until finally the whole mass breaks up and crumbles into a sandy textured mixture, giving out a pleasant aroma.
12. Paruppu usili is now ready. If you like a slightly crunchy texture, you can add a little more oil and roast as long as you wish till it becomes sandy and gives out a pleasant aroma!

A mixed vegetable paruppu usili can be prepared by sautéing minced onions, capsicum, carrot, peas and cabbage before adding the ground dal. Fenugreek leaf paruppu usili is a very healthy and popular dish.

Paruppu Usili as a side dish makes a great combination, with the main course of More Kozhambu or Koottu and hot rice.

Polo Bun 菠萝包

I was inspired by a Hong Kong drama as I saw the actors ate the polo buns are so delicious. Then, I looked for this recipe from the internet and finally I've got this wonderful recipe with full explanation and step by step decriptions.

The bread was made as usual, proof for one hour then punch out the gas and portion it to rest for 15 minutes. Then cover with the polo pastry and proof for another one hour and just wait for the 15 minutes of baking you could have a yummy polo bun. It's really smell good while I was waiting for it to come out from the oven. I like its cottony soft texture, and the crumbly polo pastry outside the bread. It's so tasty!

PS: It's yummy to eat plain as it is. I tried insert a piece of cheese and bake in the oven for the next day and it's wondeful. My other half likes to eat it with kaya. Whatever it is...it's delicious!

Recipe makes 4 buns:

For the bread: 150g bread flour / 1 tbsp milk powder / 1/4 tsp salt / 30g sugar / 1 tbsp beaten egg / 1 tsp yeast / 70g water / 15g butter

For the polo pastry: 50g plain flour / 25g sugar powder / pinch of salt / 1 tbsp beaten egg / 30g butter

How I made the polo bun:

1. Knead all the bread ingredients with the dough hook mixer for 15 minutes then proof for one hour.
2. Punch out the gas and divide it into 4 portions then rest for 15 minutes.
3. Make the polo pastry: beat the butter until pale and fluffy then gradually add in sugar powder, salt and milk powder.
4. Gradually add in beaten egg till everything combine.
5. Gently fold in plain flour, don't over mix the pastry. You might find it too sticky, add a little flour but not too much.
6. Divide it into four portions. I let it sit in the fridge for half and hour. (it would be much easier to handle later on)
7. Take a polo pastry on the left hand and a dough at right hand. Push the dough into the polo pastry from outside to inside by turning the palm of your left hand until 3/4 of the dough has place inside the polo pastry. (follow the photos show at the original website)
8. Place the dough seal side down and egg wash it then use a sharp knife gently draw chequer pattern on the pastry surface.
9. Let it proof for 1 hour then bake at 180'C preheated oven for 15 minutes.
10. It's delicious when you eat it fresh. I did reheat in the oven for couple of minutes on the next day and it's still yummy!