Lime Rasam

LIME RASAM
When eating the same rasam prepared with tamarind daily becomes boring, and the tongue craves for variety, we usually switch over to tomatoes or lime or even mango or pineapple to add the sour taste to rasam. Lime rasam can be had has a clear thin soup just before meals, or served like any other rasam with white rice.
Ingredients:
Lime – 1 big
Green gram dal – ¼ cup
Green chillies (slit) – 2
Asafoetida – 1 pinch
Curry leaves – a few
Coriander leaves – a few
Turmeric powder – 1 pinch
Salt – 1 tsp
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Tomato - 1
Method:
1. Pressure cook green gram dal in 1 ½ cups of water and turmeric powder.
2. Add salt, asafoetida, curry leaves to the watery cooked dal and boil for 2 minutes.
3. Add chopped tomatoes and boil for one more minute.
4. Add two glasses of water and decrease heat.
5. Coarsely powder pepper and cumin seeds and add it to the rasam.
6. Squeeze out the juice of one lime into the rasam
7. Add chopped fresh coriander leaves. (fewMint leaves will lend it refreshing flavour)
8. Wait until the rasam foams and remember to remove from flame before it boils.
9. Heat ghee and add mustard seeds. When it splutters add it to the rasam.
10. Keep the rasam covered so that the flavour is intact.
TIP: Any rasam should never be boiled as it spoils the flavours. Rasam will foam, and slowly rise to the top of the vessel, similar to milk, when it reaches boiling point. The flame should be switched off immediately, and the vessel covered with a lid to seal in the flavours.
Enjoy the hot rasam in a tall glass as you watch the monsoon rain lashing out.

duck tour; brick work (cont.); leo

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day! We enjoyed the long weekend with friends and Project Rowhouse took a break.

Have you guys heard of the Duck Tours? It's your typical city tour - cheesy tour guide, families, amphibious vehicle, superfluous photography, wait... what's that you say? Amphibious vehicle? That's right people. The 'bus' turns into a boat and rolls right into the harbor. We took the tour last weekend and I'd recommend it. We learned some interesting things about the city and you can get some great views of our 'hood from the harbor. I must warn you - just after they force you to pose for a picture in front of the bus'boat, they hand out kazoo'ish duck quackers to each passenger. Everyone uses them, often. Loudly. You'll do it too.

This is the end of our street from the water;


and some construction going on nearby (as seen in the previous post).


As far as the house goes - we feel good about the pace right now and have been surprisingly productive during the work week. We've moved onto the next step in the brick exposing process and I love it. Muriatic Acid:

The box is so dramatic. Lots of things are poison.

This stuff is pretty amazing for giving the brick a finishing 'scrub'. It is acid and safety precautions must be taken. Wear the proper gear, have ventilation, keep baking soda around for neutralization (for spillage and overspray), etc. I'm going to give credit to Baltimore Rowhouse (a fellow renovation blog) for describing the muriatic acid process in detail. More info here. Check out the results:

We love the way it's looking. Even though the process is taking a while, each step is quite rewarding.

Any thoughts on that wood board going up the wall? There is quite a bit of damage behind it. There will also be a column nearby where the contractor will be removing the wall. Our thoughts are that we will finish them both in similar style.

Closeup - so fresh and so clean:


We also have a new addition to the home. Meet Leonardo D'Shrimpleton, aka Leo:


Part miniature dachsund, part miniature poodle; his eyes are bright blue and he's relatively tiny... sort of an impulse, but we really like him!

Corn meal methi Adai

Corn meal is one of the recent additions to my pantry. I am trying dishes with corn rava by replacing rice/wheat. I have tried kichadi and kozhukkatai with this. Both turned out well. And this is another such recipe which is inspired by the wheat rava adai. Needless to say, this also, is a winner.

Corn meal(rava texture) - 2 cups
Pearl onion(Sambhar vengayam) - 10 nos
Green chilly - 3 nos
Small wedge of ginger
Salt

Onion -1
Chopped methi leaves - 1 cup

Soak the corn meal, with just enough water to cover it, for an hour. Grind the pearl onions, green chilly,ginger and salt together. Add the soaked corn meal and buzz till everything blends well.
Add the chopped onion and methi leaves to the batter.

Take a laddle full of the batter. Lightly spread it in the form a circle. The batter is in semi sold state and corn being gluten free, it doesn't spread like our usual dosa/adai batter. Still it is spreadable. Drizzle oil on all sides. When one side is cooked , flip over to cook the other side. Its crisp on the outside and soft as you bite into it. Also it tastes good when cold too. Methi give a nice flavor to the adai. You can serve with pickle or any gravy.

I liked it with grated jaggery. Jaggery compliments well, the slight bitterness of methi.

Next time, I shall try adding dal to it , as in normal adai.

This is my entry to the current edition of WBB-Grain-In_My-Breakfast, hosted by Aparna, an event started by Nanditha.

Also this is making to the Herb Mania-Fenugreek at RedChillies.

And to JFI-Whole grains, guest hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.