Rasam. An ole favourite.

Anywhere in India you go, there is one part of the cuisine that is a broth or refreshment that is tangy, pungent, fragrant and is created with perhaps the sole purpose of getting us to breathe deeply and expressing a warmly satisfied sigh. I count the masala nimbu soda as one such. And I had sworn once that if I could get ‘kanji’ to drink every evening, then I would give up alcohol in favor of that rye & carrot fermentation.

Rasam. Another one in that list of liquids.

A couple of months ago, I had noticed some Rasam recipes in good food and had’nt really paid heed. Then some weeks ago, out of boredom, I tried one out – and hey! Surprisingly good results. Today, I heard the maid complain of some extra Rasam powder that had been delivered; so I read that as a sign and started out again.

Wonderful result!! And this took about 15 minutes and 1 pint of Kingfisher.

What I had to get together quickly

3 ripe tomatoes | blanched, peeled and pureed in a blender

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp asafoetida (hing)

1 tsp turmeric (haldi)

salt to taste

12 leaves of curry patta

1 green chilly | broken into 2 or 3 pieces

4 pods of garlic | grated

A packet of Rasam Powder |  easily available at most stores, but also quite easy to assemble

4-5 cups of water | in which I had blanched the tomatoes

2 nice large balls of tamarind | soaked in warm water, squeezed & drained to give you a cup of tamarind pulp/water.

And away we go.

Take a deep pan, heat a couple of teaspoons of oil, and gently fry the mustard seeds, cumin powder and garlic together. Add the curry patta & green chilly and fry the leaves a bit as the fragrance develops. Immediately after, put in the pureed tomatoes, the tamarind water, the haldi and the hing. Let this cook and boil over for 3-5 minutes. When the puree & masalas looks well cooked and some oil’s separated, add 3 tbsp of the rasam powder.

Once everything is well blended, add the water and salt to taste and let boil for a few minutes.

Serve as in an earthen mug, or with rice. I love it both ways and usually end up doing a couple of cups of Rasam each way!

If you love Rasam as much as I do, you will end up finding out more about it; and it may surp you as it did me that there is quite an amazing variety of rasam’s you can make. The basic tenets of jaw dropping spiciness, fragrance and watery texture remain the same of course, but tomatoes, coconut milk, toor dal, dry red chillies, pepper and their many combinations can create some wonderful variations.

This variation above I can call my own. I read a bit, and picked from Good Food of course, but made many amendments of my own. This exact dal-less version is the one I like the most. Um. OK – So far.

Simple Roast Veggies.

Simplest and quickest burst of color that you can eat!
As long as you have a half decent oven or grill.

Disclaimer on that photo above! 
Its the starting grid, not the finished product!
I clean forgot to grab that on the camera

Writing this can scarcely take longer than the dish prep!

Grab some assorted veggies you like and slice & dice them up. Any shapes you like, but dont leave anything thicker than a centimetre each.

I started with
mushrooms – halved
yellow & red bell peppers – 1 inch squares
carrots – cut into small batons
onions – peeled and quartered; and then separated a bit with my hands
garlic pods – half a doz; just hammer them under the top of your wrist – no need to peel these.
some basil leaves – shred into two pieces.

Get all these into a deep bowl. Sprinkle some salt or sea salt, crushed pepper, dry basil powder, and a generous couple of tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Mix well in the bowl, and then lay out flat on a baking tray or earthenware plate.

This shd take no more than 12-15 mins in a pre-heated oven at moderate heat – which means no more than 175° celsius. I prefer to do them at 150° though. Take a pick, but watch the veggies every now and then!

Incidentally, the basil leaves will burn. So don’t shred them too small. Just discard them before serving.

Clearly these go well with quite a wide range of mains. And they work well as part of a warm salad with some fresh crunchy lettuce!

Enjoy them!

Typical Pok Choi

P and I have this so so often that there is no other word for it but ‘typical’.
But it does stay delightful. Do NOT laugh, but we often do this for breakfast too as a sundry item. (actually, we used to eat quite a bit of oriental food at breakfast).


What do you need?
Pok Choi – one pack, about 200gms – break up each leaf into 2 or 3 parts.
Oil – sesame, peanut – 2 tsp
Garlic – 3-4 pods, finely sliced
Light Soy sauce – 2 tbsp
Some water
Sesame seeds
One red chilly sliced


So. Heat the wok and the oil. Get a spatula ready to fly! Bung in the garlic and stir – like 15 secs! Then throw in the pok choi (oh, iI truly hope at this stage that you washed off all the grime off the stems). Stir stir stir. Keep things moving. The leafy parts will start to wither!


After a couple of minutes, throw in the soy sauce. Stir things around well. And within a minute as things are sizzling, I add some water to cool things down! Not too much, barely like 3-4 tbsp worth! This provides the nice head of steam to cook off the white stems of the pok choi.


Finally add the sesame seeds and red chilli, stir, check one of the stems in your mouth for a ‘done test’ and plate the dish. It will have a watery residue, but very little, and that is the point of pok choi well done.


Had with a fork. Or chopsticks. Better with rice. 
I have often added some sliced mushrooms to this dish with good effect! Don’t be scared!

This wonderful, fall-in-love-with ginger sauce . Mmmm.

Promise to re-publish this with a photo the next time I make this!
Aug 20, 2012 – Updated with the snaps when I made this again today.

Again – this was inspired from Luscious Temptations.
The post is about a Hainanese chicken with Garlic rice – and that looks tempting as hell! But I went there for the ginger and spring onion sauce mentioned at the end! 

ginger – about 4 tbsp grated
spring onions – about 4 tbsp – just the white heads = sliced fine
sliced fresh red chillies – 1 tbsp
sesame oil – 2 tbsp. You can use a normal vegetable oil if you don’t have sesame; but really this sauce makes the sesame oil worth the effort.
salt – to taste

Add all the ingredients in a small shallow bowl, give it a good whisk to mix them up. Then put the bowl into the steamer. Steam away for about 15 mins. When you lift the lid, it should have a light brown texture with the red of the chillies adding a depth of color!

When I made this the last time, I added in some sesame seeds. Like so!

Serve slightly cooled or room temperature with the rice and steamed fish! Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days as well.