Pineapple Rasam

A spicy, soupy Indian dish made from a fruit? That too, a pineapple? It starts off sounding odd, but I just need to bring to attention the surprisingly lovely taste of a cheesy pizza topped with pineapple and jalapeno. Who would have ever thought that pineapples could be eaten on top of bread, tomato sauce, herbs, and cheese? And sweet and tart next to hot and spicy? As ludicrous as it sounds, we all know that the marriage between sweet, tart, and spicy is beautiful and unique.

So why not Pineapple rasam? It is actually prepared during very special occasions such as weddings, but it rarely features as an everyday dish. I think we should remedy this, for this is one tasty rasam that shouldn’t be relegated to just a few days a year.

The process is pretty much the same as preparing Tomato Rasam. Since pineapples are even more tarter than tomatoes, the quantity of tamarind used is decreased, and no jaggery/brown sugar is added. I also added an extra spoon of coriander powder, because I wanted to turn up the spice level a notch so that the sweetness of the pineapple shines through better. Everything else remains the same. But I’m copy-pasting and updating the recipe on this page to minimize one extra click.

Ingredients:

1. ½ cup of cooked, mashed Thoor Dhal (cooked lentils)
2. Half a lime-sized ball of tamarind (approximately ½ - 3/4 inch in diameter)
3. ¾ - 1 cup of diced pineapple (the quantity depends on how tart the fruit is and how much you would like to add; If it’s too tart, reduce the tamarind even more)
4. Two teaspoons of Rasam powder (Ah, that is another post by itself; The powder is a finely ground mixture of dry roasted red chillies, turmeric, coriander seeds, thoor dhal, and channa dhal; variations abound; but these days they are available aplenty in stores - MTR and Shakthi Masala are tried and tested brands)
5. One teaspoon of coriander powder
6. A teaspoon of turmeric
7. A teaspoon or two of salt
8. A teaspoon of ghee (or vegetable oil)
9. A teaspoon of mustard seeds
10. 1/4 teaspoon of Hing
11. A few curry leaves, and coriander leaves (cilantro) for garnish

Preparation:

1. Boil the tamarind ball with enough water to cover it (in the microwave, heat for 2 minutes). Let it cool/seep. When the tamarind is warm enough to be touched, squeeze the pulp to get the extract, and add the extract into a vessel (a medium sauce-pan). Dilute the pulp again with lukewarm water and extract as much “juice” as possible. Discard the pulp.
2. Add the pineapples to the tamarind extract and add 2 cups of water.
3. Add salt, turmeric, rasam powder, coriander powder and turn on the heat.
4. Heat the tangy liquid on medium-heat till the raw taste of tamarind is mellowed and the pineapples are cooked. (Rule of thumb - this step usually takes about 20-25 mins.)
5. Mash the cooked thoor dhal and add it to the Rasam. Continue heating/boiling on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes.
6. Wait till the raw taste of dhal is gone, and the rasam froths and bubbles (as my grandmother adorably says - “wait for multicolored bubbles to come around the edges of the rasam”). Note: do not over-boil the rasam at this stage. Turn off the heat.
7. Heat some ghee (highly recommended), or vegetable oil in a small pan. When hot, add mustard seeds, and let it splutter. Then add curry leaves and Hing powder.
8. Add this seasoning to the Rasam and watch its lovely sizzle. In addition, throw in some washed and cut coriander leaves (cilantro).

This rasam is tangy, sweet, and spicy. The pineapples become sweeter and they taste so good after absorbing all the tamarind and spices. 

This is a good rasam to turn to when the regular tomato becomes a bit redundant.

Easy Entertaining With Fruit Crumble

Entertaining friends used to be a fun time to look forward to.  Now, it's morphed into a tiring, daunting task that requires effort, skill, patience and a certain flair. Why? Simply due to some misplaced, misunderstood, and exaggerated social norms. 

If you'd like to read my 2 cents on easy entertaining, please check out my guest-post at Women's Web. 

I also share a simple recipe for a basic fruit crumble that turns out like this:

Spinach Masiyal

Fresh leafy greens of various kinds are abundantly available in my home State. Each one has its own unique medicinal properties and rich nutritional content that special dishes have been dedicated to them. However, our style of cooking is pretty bad at coming up with salads - there are a few of course, but for the most part it is considered insulting to munch on uncooked leaves. So they are cooked until they wilt, and are spiced until their original taste hides behind a dozen other taste sensations. Still.... despite knowing all this, I would any day prefer such a masiyal (a paste) to a plate full of spinach leaves dressed with a light vinaigrette. My taste buds are spoilt so.

This is my own mish-mash of a spinach masiyal. 90% of it is my grandmother’s and mother’s recipe, but I updated those things that my mother wouldn’t - such as adding the infamous garlic.

Ingredients:

1. 5-6 cups of spinach leaves (remember spinach wilts down to nothing when cooked)
2. 2 green chillies (or more if you’d like)
3. ¼ cup of water
4. ½ teaspoon salt
5. 4 garlic cloves
6. 2 inch strip of tamarind
7. ½ - ¾ teaspoon of jaggery or brown sugar
8. ¼ teaspoon sambar powder or curry powder (optional)
9. 1 teaspoon rice flour
10. ½ teaspoon of mustard seeds
11. ½ teaspoon of split urad dhal / ulutham paruppu
12. 2 dry red chillies
13. 1 teaspoon of oil

Preparation:

1. Crush the garlic cloves and green chillies to make a sort of paste. I use the mortar and pestle to roughly crush and combine the two.
2. Extract the juice of the tamarind strip. Soak it in a little bit of hot water and squeeze out the juice. The juice wouldn’t be more than ½ cup.
3. Cut the spinach leaves and cook them with ¼ cup of water, salt, and the garlic+green chillies paste. Periodically check on the spinach leaves and add a bit of water if needed. Cook on medium heat.
4. When the spinach wilts and cooks, add the tamarind juice, some sambar powder (optional), and brown sugar/jaggery and cook for 10 minutes or so until the raw smell of tamarind dissipates.
5. If the masiyal is watery, thicken it by dissolving 1 teaspoon of rice flour in 1-2 teaspoons of water and adding it to the masiyal. This is a technique used to thicken gravies. Allow the masiyal to cook for 5-10 minutes until it thickens. When it does, remove from heat.
6. Heat a bit of oil. Splutter mustard seeds. Add urad dhal and red chillies, fry for a few seconds, and add the garnish to the masiyal.

That’s it. This recipe has hardly any oil. If you would like it to be a tad more healthier, skip the tamarind and go easy on the spices/chillies. But if you need to coax a fussy eater into having spinach, this is a good dish to try. It can be had as is, can be mixed with steamed rice, or had as a side-dish.

Some people grind/crush the spinach to a smooth paste after it cooks. I personally don’t like the masiyal to resemble baby food, so I skip the crushing/grinding.

As always, you can be creative and add onions and tomatoes along with the spinach. It will turn into a lovely sabzi.

Garlic Rasam

The Garlic suffers from a prejudice that my family (actually my entire community) holds - or, used to hold against it. The aversion is mostly because of its unfortunate pungent smell. But, having come to know of its wonderful medicinal properties, my ancestors seemed to have relented their prejudices at some point, albeit only a tiny bit. Garlic rasam is one such a rare exception - I don’t think there’s any other dish in my community that has garlic as the star ingredient (or an ingredient at all). This warm soup is prepared by cooking garlic cloves in a spicy tamarind juice. It is especially prepared on days when people are nursing a cold or a minor ailment.

I can count the few number of times when my mother prepared garlic rasam. But, it has been featured in the kitchen, nonetheless. So, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 6-7 cloves of garlic (was that a sharp intake of breath I heard?)
2. a small lime-sized ball of tamarind (approximately 1 inch in diameter)
3. 2-3 dry red chillies
4. ¾ teaspoon of black pepper-corns
5. 2 teaspoons of coriander seeds
6. 1 teaspoon of bengal gram dhal / kadala paruppu
7. 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
8. 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
9. few curry leaves
10. ¼ teaspoon of asafoetida
11. 1 teaspoon of ghee
12. 2 teaspoons of oil (olive oil / vegetable oil)
13. 1 teaspoon of salt
14. ½ teaspoon of rasam powder (optional)

Preparation:

1. Extract tamarind juice. Soak the tamarind in hot water for 10 minutes. Squish and squeeze out all the juices. Drain the pulp. Repeat the process for a second time with lukewarm water. Drain the pulp and discard. Add 2-3 cups of water to the extracted tamarind juice.
2. Slightly crush the garlic cloves (I do this, because I believe all the lovely juices come out and infuse better), and fry them for a couple of minutes in a teaspoon of oil. Do not let the garlic brown.
3. Add the slightly fried garlic cloves, salt, and a little bit of rasam powder into the tamarind juice (plus water) and boil on medium heat.
4. As the above heats, roast pepper-corns, coriander seeds, red chillies, and bengal gram dhal in a teaspoon of oil. Roast till the spices release their aroma and the bengal gram dhal begins to turn slightly brown. Do not burn or over-roast. Grind this to a paste with a spoon or two of water. Add this paste to the the garlic+tamarind mix that is heating. And continue to boil.
5. Dry roast the cumin seeds and a few curry leaves (2-3) for a couple of minutes. Grind this to a powder.
6. When the raw scent of tamarind leaves the boiling rasam and the garlic is cooked, add the above cumin powder to the rasam and continue to heat on low-medium heat until the rasam begins to bubble around the edges. Remove rasam from heat.
7. Splutter mustard seeds in a teaspoon of ghee. Add some asafoetida to it and add it to the prepared rasam.

Garlic rasam is ready to be served. It is had as a spicy soup or is mixed with steamed rice. This is also supposed to relieve digestive issues, thanks to the garlic, cumin, and pepper. Cooked garlic doesn’t taste or smell as pungent, so rest assured of that doubt. Seasoned cooks believe garlic tastes sweet when it is roasted or cooked for a long time. I haven’t really tasted the sweetness, but I like cooked/boiled garlic. Obviously, it is a frowned-upon eccentricity of mine that my family chooses to ignore.

Masaal Vadai

Masaal Vadai evokes a very funny and obscure memory. Back home, these crispy, fragrant fritters are usually used as baits in mouse/rat traps. They are known to be excellent lures to capture the scraggly critters! And I vividly remember the time when there were quite a few vadais in my place, because we were trying to catch an elusive mouse. We didn’t get to eat any vadai, though. The mouse ate a few before it was finally trapped. It was then safely released into the wild. 

Although my mom has never made this kind of vadai, they are extremely popular in my city. Every other street corner would house a mobile frying station (a frying pot and accessories on wheels) that will dish out masaal vadais, pakodas, bajjis, etc. Totally unhealthy street food, but tempting nonetheless. Since I had my nose up in the air, I never had such street-food delicacies from street vendors - a regret. But, one of my mother’s aunts who is an excellent cook, used to prepare this for tiffin/snacks. I don’t think she remembers the day/s she made this for me when I stayed at her place, but I sure do, for I bugged her with questions and observed her making the vadais. And I told myself, someday, I would make them too. So, here I am. 

It’s simple to prepare (as I always mention). If I can do it, anybody can do it. 

Aama Vadai / Indian Lentil Fritters

Vadais are crispy lentil-based fritters. There are several versions, one of which I’ve written about here. The other common vadai that is made during special occasions is the aama vadai. It is made with a mix of pulses and lentils that are relatively coarsely ground to make for a crispy texture. 

My mom makes the world's best vadais! So, I learned to make these from her.

Venn Pongal

Venn means white (or pure/pristine) in Tamil. Venn Pongal translates to White Pongal. It is a simple savory dish made from rice and dhal, and seasoned with cumin and pepper-corns in fragrant ghee. Most commonly had during breakfast/brunch, Venn Pongal is yet another classic South-Indian food. 

Ingredients (serves 2)

1. 1 cup of raw white rice
2. ¼ cup of moong dhal / payatham paruppu
3. ½ - 1 teaspoon of black pepper corns (subject to your preference)
4. 1.5 teaspoons of cumin seeds
5. 1 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger
6. few broken cashew nuts to garnish (1/2 - 1 teaspoon)
7. 2 teaspoons of ghee
8. a few curry leaves
9. 4.25 - 5 cups of water; the ratio of rice + dhal : water is 1:4.5 (it depends on the type of rice, and how mushy you like your pongal. I added 4.5 cups of water total, and my pongal can still afford to be just a bit more mushy. The new rice we bought has been messing up my measurements a tiddly bit).
10. Salt - 3/4 teaspoon (or to taste)

Preparation

1. Dry roast the rice and moong dhal on medium heat for 5-6 minutes until the grains are warm to the touch.
2. Add water and salt to the slightly roasted rice and dhal and cook until the rice/dhal is fully cooked and the water is completely absorbed.
3. When the rice cooks, prepare the garnish. Dry roast the pepper-corns and cumin seeds on medium heat until the pepper corn begins to pop slightly (about 6-10 mins). Grind the roasted pepper and cumin to a fine powder.
4. Heat a couple of teaspoons of ghee on low-medium heat. When hot, roast the cashews till they begin to turn a golden brown. Next, add the ginger and fry for a minute. Finally, add the curry leaves and the ground pepper-cumin powder and fry a minute with the heat switched off.
5. Fluff up the cooked rice. Add the garnish to the rice/dhal and mix well (do this when the rice is hot). Serve with sambar, rasam, gothsu, or chutney.

Venn Pongal will be slightly mushier than regular steamed rice. So, adjust your rice/dhal : water ratio based on how much water you add for cooking rice. The rule of thumb is - add ½ - 1 cup to the former measure.

I personally don’t like whole pepper-corns sneaking between bites of pongal. I end up removing them from the pongal as I eat. So, I grind it along with cumin so that the spices uniformly mix in the pongal. But, most people just fry the cumin seeds and pepper-corns in ghee (along with the rest of the garnish) and don’t make a powder. So, experiment and adopt a version that works for you!

Sakkarai Pongal

On this day of Pongal or Makara Shankranthi, we prepare a sweet rice pudding called Sakkarai Pongal (Sakkarai meaning sweet or sugar). Sakkarai Pongal is made in a traditional heavy brass pot that is decorated with turmeric shoots and sugarcane leaves. It is offered to the Sun God with prayers for a good year (especially for a good year of bountiful harvests).

This recipe comes from my mother. 

Poornam Poli - Attempt 1

Today is the South-Indian festival of Bhogi. It is the day before Makara Sankranthi (also known as Pongal in Tamil Nadu), which is a harvest festival that occurs approximately 20 days after the Winter solstice. Bhogi is an important day for farmers and those whose professions revolve around agriculture. Since cows, bulls, and oxes used to help with most of the heavy labor involved in ploughing and tilling land, they are given a deserved day-off today. They are given a luxurious bath/scrub, their horns are painted in bright colors, new bells are tied around their necks, and they are paraded through the village/town/neighborhood to collect some gratuity from people. In cities, Bhogi is the day when people do their annual “spring cleaning”. Old things are discarded (and sometimes burnt), and houses are cleaned, dusted, and freshly painted. The tradition of burning old things started to contribute to the already high air-pollution in cities, so this little custom is not as practised these days. Still, most towns and cities will have a thick cloud of smoke and fog in the early morning hours of Bhogi.

Since most of our ancestors’ livelihood depended on agriculture and farming, our families still honor this festival in our own little way. A sweet, and a savory dish are prepared and symbolically offered as a thank-you to the Sun God. Every farmer rejoices the Sun and prays for the winter months to end soon. And we join them too - who doesn’t want the winter months to end sooner?

A popular Bhogi sweet is Poli. I have watched my mother make it plenty of times, but this is the first time I tried it out, thanks to my mother-in-law’s recipe. There are a few versions of Poli. This version is prepared by stuffing a sweet filling of jaggery and cooked lentils into a dough made of all-purpose flour. The stuffed dough is pressed thin and then baked/cooked with generous drizzles of ghee (clarified butter). After today’s attempt, I realize that Poli is definitely yet another dish that requires skill and practice to make it soft and tender! But the ingredients are simple, and the individual steps are easy.

Ingredients (yields 8 small polis)

1. ½ cup of Bengal gram dhal / kadala paruppu
2. ¾ cup of powdered jaggery (the ratio of bengal gram dhal : jaggery is 1: 1.5)
3. 1 tablespoon grated coconut
4. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
5. 1.5 cups all-purpose flour (maida)
6. ½  teaspoon turmeric
7. ¼  teaspoon salt
8. Sesame oil - about 9 to 10 teaspoons
9. Ghee - as needed (approximately 6-8 teaspoons)
10. Water - as needed (approximately ¾ - 1 cup)
11. A banana leaf or a plastic sheet to form the Polis

Preparation

1. Preparing the stuffing
1. Rinse the Bengal-gram dhal in water. With enough water to cover them, cook the pulses until they are almost cooked. The dhal should remain whole, but when pressed with a spoon or your finger, it should get squashed.
2. Drain all the remaining water from the cooked dhal. Add jaggery and coconut to the cooked dhal and stir over medium-high heat until the jaggery dissolves. When the jaggery syrup starts bubbling, wait for 5-7 minutes, stirring the mixture continuously. When the mixture begins to thicken, switch off the heat and remove from heat. Let the mixture cool completely. As the mixture cools, the jaggery will thicken more. The cooled mixture will look as shown in the picture below
3. Grind the cooled mixture to make a paste. Do not add any water. Mix a spoon of cardamom powder into the paste and mix well.

Cooled poornam filling before it is ground.

This is the sweet filling.

2. To make the dough, mix all-purpose flour, salt, and turmeric powder, and knead together with a few teaspoons of sesame oil and ghee (2-3 spoons each), along with approximately ¾ -1 cup of water. Knead the dough well. The dough will be squishy and moist. Cover the dough, drizzle a spoon of sesame oil over it, and let it rest for 1 hour (and up to 3 hours).
3. When the dough is rested, start the poli preparation. Grease the banana leaf/plastic sheet (a ziplock bag will work fine) with a spoon of sesame oil. Take a small ball of dough and press it using the tips of your fingers, moving along the dough in outward motions starting from the center. When the dough is pressed out half-way, place a ball of the jaggery-dhal stuffing in the center. Pull the sides of the dough to close around the stuffing (as shown in the pictures). The dough will be stretchy and rubbery, making it easier to pull around the stuffing. Periodically dip your fingers in a small bowl of sesame oil and continue pressing out the stuffed dough into a thin circle. This step requires some practice. Don’t worry if the polis don’t shape into a circle, or if they tear a smidge in a few places (like mine did!). Just make sure not to unevenly press out the dough, for it will not cook evenly. Press the dough as thin as possible, without tearing the poli too much.
4. Now comes the tricky step. Reverse the leaf/plastic sheet onto your palm such that the poli touches your palm. Gently peel out the sheet/leaf to retrieve the pressed poli.Transfer the poli onto a hot skillet (cast-iron would be ideal). To ensure the poli peels out easily, be sure to liberally grease the leaf/sheet with sesame oil.
5. Cook the Poli on low-medium heat. Spoon a bit of ghee around the corners of the poli, and coat some on top of either sides of the poli. This helps it to be soft and aromatic. Cook the poli on both sides for about 2 -3 minutes each. Using the spatula, periodically press on the poli to help it cook evenly.
6. When cooked, the yellow color of the poli dough will turn golden. Transfer cooked Poli to a plate. Repeat steps 3-5 until the dough finishes.

Poli making steps - stuff, press, cook.

Polis definitely do turn out much better if they are slathered with ghee during the cooking phase. But even otherwise, sparing amounts of ghee will go a long way in softening the polis. Polis can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days. They are best consumed on the day they are made (especially if they don’t have as much ghee to prolong their soft texture). This dish is usually had on its own.

My polis are nowhere near perfect. I surely need more practice to knead the dough to the right consistency and to get them to be super soft and perfectly formed. I will be re-attempting and re-visiting this again.

Thiruvathirai Kali

Kali is a slightly sweet dish that is made during the festive day of Thiruvaathirai - the day when Goddess Parvati supposedly reunited with God Shiva. Kali and a special sambar (composed of 5,7, or 11 different vegetables) are prepared on this day. These two dishes are simple and satisfying.

Ingredients for Kalli (serves 3)

1. 1 cup of uncooked white rice
2. 2.5 cups of water
3. 1.5 cups of jaggery or brown sugar
4. a tablespoon of grated coconut
5. a tablespoon/ladle of cooked thoor dhal (yellow lentils)
6. 1 teaspoon of cardamom powder
7. a pinch of saffron
8. 1 teaspoon of ghee (clarified butter)
9. a few cashews and raisins to garnish

Preparation

1. Dry roast the rice till it starts browning slightly with an orangish-pinkish hue. With a spatula, constantly keep stirring the rice around in the pan so that all the grains roast evenly. Transfer the roasted rice to a cool dish and allow it to cool completely.
2. Grind the cooled, roasted rice till its finely broken and almost smooth. It should feel like fine sooji (rava) to touch. So, essentially grind the rice until it's 80-90% smooth and powdery. Measure 1 cup of this ground rice to prepare the Kalli. Usually, the volume of whole rice is almost the same as the volume of ground rice.
3. Bring 2.5 cups of water to a boil. Add jaggery to the water and stir on medium heat until the jaggery is completely dissolved.
4. Add coconut, saffron and cooked dhal to the boiling jaggery water.
5. Now, slowly add the ground rice to the water, constantly stirring to ensure the rice dissolves without any lumps. Continue heating/cooking on medium heat until the rice thickens slightly and begins to bubble (about 5-10 minutes)
6. Cook/steam the rice until the Kali comes together (until the ground rice cooks completely and there is no water). One can either steam this by immersing the smaller vessel containing the kali into a bigger pot filled with a cup or two of water, or cook it in a pressure cooker for a couple of whistles. Steaming the kali would take 15-20 minutes on high heat. The cooked kali is crumbly, yet slightly moist - exactly like rava kesari.
7. Garnish the kali with cardamom powder, cashews and raisins roasted in ghee.(Alternatively, you can add the cardamom powder to the cooking rice too)

Kali (sans raisins and saffron) and sambar from last year. Sambar recipe is coming up...

Kali is mildly sweet, and is meant to be had with the spicy, multi-vegetable sambar. If you'd like to prepare this as a dessert, you may have to add an extra cup of jaggery/brown sugar. 

Thiruvathirai sambar (that's made to accompany Kali) is prepared in the exact same way as arachu vitta sambar, except we add at least 5 or 7 (or 9) different types of vegetables to the sambar. Sweet potato and carrots are commonly added to this sambar to bring a subtle sweetness. I very frequently make this kind of sambar because it is packed with vegetables and lentils, and is so flavorful!