Poondu (Garlic) Rasam

Another simple, healthy & flavorful rasam recipe from the traditional series.

Garlic rasam mixed with hot rice and a dab of ghee is not only comforting, but also has a lot of medicinal qualities especially for the sick & bed-ridden. With garlic & cumin & pepper, you can't find a better home remedy for cold & sore-throat!

But, wait! You don't have to be sick to enjoy this aromatic & flavorful rasam. Hot & spicy garlic rasam makes a perfectly warming soup on any cold rainy day!

Basic Info
Complexity - Simple
Prep time - 5 mins
Cook time - 20 mins
Serves - 3-4

Ingredients
Tomatoes - 3 Medium (ripe, sour)
Cooked Toor dal - 2 tsp (pressure cooked & mashed)
Tamarind - Small marble sized
Water - 2 cups + 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Hing - 2 pinches
Salt - to taste

To Crush Coarsely
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Pepper corns - 2 tsp
Dry red chilli - 1 no
Garlic - 7-8 cloves (leave the skin on)

To Season
Ghee - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Cilantro - few stalks

Method

Mix 2 tsp of cooked toor dal with a cup of water and keep it ready until use.

Heat a cup of water and soak tamarind in it for 10 mins. Extract about 2 cups of tamarind water from it. Filter the water & discard the pulp.

Using your hands, squish & mash the tomatoes into tamarind water. Add turmeric water, salt, hing and mix well.

In the meanwhile, take a mixer, add cumin seeds & pepper corns and give it a pulse. Next, add dry red chilli and give it a second pulse and finally, add garlic cloves and give it the third & last pulse. The idea is to coarsely grind the ingredients. Alternatively, you can use mortar & pestle and crush them into a coarse mixture.

Add this crushed mixture to the tamarind water. 

Bring it to a rolling boil on medium heat (takes about 10-12 mins). Then, add dal water, adjust salt and let it froth (takes about 2-3 mins).

Remove from heat & cover it completely for atleast 15 mins for all the flavors to be locked inside.

Heat a tsp of ghee, splutter mustard seeds and add it to the rasam. Garnish with curry leaves & cilantro and hot rasam is ready to be served.

Milagu Kuzhambu

When someone in my family is sick, I know where to turn to and how to make them feel better. Thanks to all those comforting traditional recipes that are passed down to us from our ancestors! Especially, last week was so tiring with my entire family was taken down by a nasty flu. Without a doubt, traditional recipes were my only resort. 

It's such a blessing to have known what to use in a traditional recipe, how to cook & when to cook, just the way our ancestors cooked them. Traditional recipes are packed with nutrients and super nourishing especially during sick times. They use no artificial ingredients, no pre-processed foods, but the best food that helps our body to get the maximum nutrition and comfort in every possible way!

Every culture has a nourishing tradition of their own and we, Tamilians also have a rich nourishing tradition that includes a lot of healthy ingredients such as pepper, cumin, ginger, turmeric, hing, garlic, curry leaves, ajwain etc.

Milagu Kuzhamabu (tamarind pepper stew) is one such traditional recipe, where pepper serves as a good decongestant for the stuffy noses & throats. I always remember my mom saying how sweating helps body to cool down during fever and heat from the peppercorns works wonder at that. Curry leaves & hing promotes digestive health, which is supposedly weak during ailment. Milagu kuzhambu was spicy yet very comforting with hot rice and a dash of ghee.

Ingredients

Tamarind - small golf ball sized
Water - 2 cups + 1 cup
Ural dal - 2 tbsp
Whole black pepper - 1.25 tbsp
Hing - a small piece
Red chillies - 2 nos
Gingelly oil - 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
Dry ginger powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 6 sprigs + 1 sprig for garnish
Sundakkai vathal - 1 tbsp (optional)
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp (I used 1/2 tsp of roasted cumin powder)
Salt - to taste
Ghee - 1 tsp

Method

Soak tamarind in a cup of hot water and extract about 3 cups of tamarind pulp. Set it aside.

Heat abt a tsp of gingelly oil and fry hing, urad dal, whole black peppercorns, red chillies until crisp & golden brown. Let it cool and grind it into a fine paste along with fresh curry leaves using very less water (about 2-3 tbsp). Set it aside.

Heat rest of the oil in a deep saucepan. When hot, add sundakkai vathal and fry it for a min. To this, add tamarind pulp extract (caution: oil might splatter), turmeric powder, salt and let it boil for about 15 mins until it reduces to half in quantity.

Now, add the ground paste, dry ginger powder, curry leaves (from 1 sprig) and let it boil for another 5 mins. Remove from heat. Fry cumin seeds in a tbsp of ghee and add it to milagu kuzhambu at the end.

Yummy, flavorful milagu kuzhambu is ready to be served.

Note

You could also grind tamarind along with the other spices, add water and bring them all to a boil until the mixture starts to thicken and the raw smell of tamarind goes away!

Cucumber juice

Gearing up for the Summer?! Well, here's a simple 10-min juice recipe that can rejuvenate you from the inside out! Cool & refreshing cucumber water with a minty-citrusy-gingery note - this perfectly light & bright drink can help you get going even during those hottest months of the year!

Basic Info
Complexity - Simple
Prep time - 5 mins
Cook time - 5 mins
Serves - 1

Ingredients
Cucumber - 10 nos
Mint leaves - 10 nos (optional)
Lime - 1 no
Dry ginger powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Water - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Ice cubes - as required

Method
Peel the outer layer of the cucumber and chop them into bigger chunks.

Blend chopped cucumber, mint leaves into fine paste without adding water. Using a fine seive, filter just the juice. Press the juice through the sieve using back of the spoon and discard pulp.

Stir in lime juice, dry ginger powder, salt and mix well. Add ice cubes & serve chilled.

Paneer Aloo Matar

A classic punjabi recipe that goes so well with poori or any other Indian bread.

We loved this recipe so much that I thought every single ingredient in this recipe is there for a reason. Adding methi leaves to the recipe gives it a remarkable flavor boost. We liked this curry on the drier side, but you can always add more water and make it gravy-based.

Basic Info
Complexity - Medium
Prep time - 20 mins
Cook time - 25 mins
Serves - 3-4

Ingredients
Green Peas - 1/2 cup (fresh/frozen)
Paneer Cubes - 1/2 cup
Potatoes - 2 nos (medium sized, boiled and cubed)
Onion - 1 no (large, finely chopped)
Garlic - 2 pods (minced)
Ginger - 1 inch (grated)
Tomatoes - 2 nos (medium sized, ripe)
Cashewnuts - 1 tbsp (heaped)
Kasoori Methi - 2 tsp
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method

Use a mixer and grind tomatoes & cashews into a fine paste (without adding any water). Keep it aside until ready to use.

Boil potatoes until 3/4th cooked. Drain water and chop them into 1 inch cubes.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan. When hot, add boiled & cubed potatoes and shallow fry them until for 2-3 mins. Drain and keep it aside.

Also, shallow fry paneer cubes in the same pan until golden brown. Drain and keep it aside.

Now, add onion into the same pan and saute until translucent. Saute grated ginger & minced garlic for a min. Add tomato + cashew puree and let it cook for 3-4 mins.

Next, stir in all the dry masala powder - turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt, kasoori methi (crush into powder with hands) and cook for a min.

Add, potatoes, paneer cubes, peas and cook for another min on medium. Then, add 1/2 cup of water and let the mixture cook on low heat for about 4-5 mins until it reduces to required consistency.

Remove from heat and serve it with poori/rotis.

Notes

Since I added frozen peas, 4-5 min cooking at the end was enough. Incase you are using fresh peas, make sure to cook them 3/4th before using in the last step of the recipe.

Bhel Puri

With green chutney & tamarind chutney as my previous posts, can you guess what this post is going to be?! Alright, chaat item it is!

Bhel puri, a classic north Indian street snack that is low-fat, nutritious & delicious too! What more can you ask for in a snack? Crispy puffed rice, crunchy namkeen, soft potatoes, refreshing mix of cucumbers & tomatoes combined with spicy-tangy-sweet chutneys and garnished with cilantro - whoa, what a lovely mix of colors, flavors & textures! Bhel puri is a pure treat for both eyes & tummy!

Bhel puri has to be served immediately as soon as it is mixed. Otherwise, juices from the veggies and the chutneys makes it really soggy & unappetizing. Fill your plate with a big mound of bhel puri, garnish with sev poori / cilantro / chaat masala on top and what else? Just dig in!

Basic Info

Complexity - Simple

Prep time - 25 mins

Cook time - 10 mins

Serves - 3-4

Ingredients

Puffed rice - 3 cups 

Papdi / Sev / any kind of namkeen that you like - 2 cups (I used Surati Bhel mix)

Cucumber - 2 nos (small, chopped into small pieces)

Tomatoes - 2 nos (small, deseeded, chopped into small pieces)

Potatoes - 2 nos (small, boiled & peeled, chopped into small pieces)

Cilantro - 2-3 tbsp (finely chopped)

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Green Chutney - 1.5 tbsp (adjust to your spice level)

Tamarind Chutney - 1.5 tbsp (adjust to your taste)

Fine Sev - as required (for garnish)

Chaat masala/amchur powder - as required (for garnish)

Method

Dry roast puffed rice for couple of mins until crisp (helps in bringing back crispiness & freshness).

Mix puffed rice and namkeen together. Set it aside until ready to serve. Mix cucumber, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, salt and set aside.

When ready to serve, mix dry ingredients & veggie mix together along with green chutney & tamarind chutney. Adjust chutneys to your taste while making sure that it coats the entire bhel puri.

Garnish on top with sev puri, sprinkle of chaat masala/amchur, cilantro and serve immediately.

Notes

• In addition to other vegetables, you can also add finely chopped onion. I skipped it.
• Add about 1/2 cup of mixed sprouted lentils to make it a protein-rich snack.
• Add about 1/2 cup of roasted peanuts for that extra crunch in texture.
• Too much of chutneys will make the bhel puri soggy.
• Do not mix dry & wet ingredients together until ready to serve.