Tomato Rice /Thakkali Sadam

There are varieties of rice which are popular in the South like the pulaos of the North. Coconut rice, lemon rice and tamarind rice/pulioyodharai are the common ones and they are served as prasadam too. In my childhood days, I am more familiar with the above said types. Later on, Amma started preparing tomato rice, which she learnt from one of aunts. Needless to say, we were hooked to it and loved it for our lunch boxes. Tomato rice with some appalam or any fritters makes an ideal choice as travel food too. There are many ways to prepare this. I follow the method where in I use all the powders readily available on the shelf.

Cooked rice - 2 cups with grains separated.
For the masala
Ripe tomatoes - 3 nos

Onion - 2 nos

Red chilly powder - 1/2 tspn

Sambhar powder - 1 tblspn

Green chilly - 2 nos

Curry leaves - few

Gingely oil/any vegetable oil - 3 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

Turmeric - a pinch

salt

garam masala - 1/2 tspn (optional)

Finely chop the onions and tomatoes and keep them separately.
Heat a kadai with 3 tablespoons of oil. Add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add the cumin seeds. When it starts to brown, add the slit green chillies, curry leaves and chopped onions. When onion turn slightly brown, add chopped tomatoes. Cook for 3 minutes or till the tomatoes turn mushy. Add the powders (turmeric,red chilly powder, sambhar powder) and salt. Keep stirring in between so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of kadai. When the oil separates from the gravy, remove from fire. If you want to add garam masala, add before taking off from the fire.

Mix with cooled rice and serve with fritters/raitha. I have served with microwaved sago(javarisi) applams.

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.