Lemon Rasam (Elumichai Rasam)

Rasam is a thin, lightly spiced (and mostly clear) soup-like dish which forms an integral part of Tamil cuisine. It is usually served as a second or third course and mixed with plain, steamed rice. While some people call it an appetiser, traditionally, it has always been served with rice, after the sambar or kootu preparations - both lentil based dishes. Though rasam is lentil based as well, it is much lighter using only a small quantity of lentils as a foil to the sour, tamarind pulp and avoiding a complex mix of spices. Eating rasam on a banana leaf is an art by itself and for the longest time I would never eat rasam at a traditional ellai saapadu (traditional meal served on banana leaves)

There are different types of rasams - there is the fiery Milagai Rasam which gets its heat from black peppercorns (and from whence the Anglicized verison - Mulligatawny Soup - evolved) - best had when you have a bad cold and your head is heavy. Then there is the Tomato Rasam - a pleasant, tangy concoction, much beloved of children and the perfect comfort food when one comes home after a long journey. The Pacchai Rasam is, as the name suggests, pacchai or raw - the spices are not roasted or boiled, in keeping with the fact that it is made for nursing mothers and is supposed to be bland but nourishing and so has no spices. In addition to the different types, even the Tomato Rasam or the lentil based Parippu Rasam which are made almost on a daily basis, vary from home to home. The choices seem endless, but are often non-negotiable to some. 

Do you use lentils, strained lentil water or do you soak the lentils to be ground with spices? Freshly crushed spices or home made spice powder or store bought? Tomato pulp or tomatoes quartered? Boil for 1 minute and then turn off or simmer gently for 5 minutes? Garlic in tempering or garlic crushed with spices? 

It was said that the first test for the new bride was her rasam - if she got that right then her cooking skills were bound to be good. Hmm....maybe I should tell my daughter, this should be the test before she chooses her partner - the times I have craved for a nice rasam when I was sick and glared balefully at my Maggi making husband!! My favourite rasams are the ones made by SIL, Mom and my husband's aunt - truly outstanding.

If a souffle is one person's bogeyman and shaping modaks another's, then lemon rasam was mine. Rasam itself took me a long time to master, given that I never quite took to even eating it, till I was well into my twenties. As a child there was the whole question of "touching issues" so I had to be given a small coaster or plate to keep under my plate to make sure the rasam did not touch the veggies or the veggies would have to be transferred to a smaller bowl....sigh, I don't argue with my daughter now when she does the same. But atleast she loves rasam.

Marrying into a rasam crazy family meant that I soon developed a taste for it (actually, what's not to like!) and after many attempts managed to get it right myself. But this was the usual parippu rasam or lentil based one made with either crushed spices or rasam powder. Tomato rasam was the next progression - not sure why it took me so long to get there. But lemon rasam I did not venture towards for a long, long time - it seemed too ethereal for me to try! 

Delicate in taste and light on the stomach - not for it the sourness of tamarind but just a squeeze of lemon right at the end when its taken off the heat. Any sooner and it will turn bitter. Too many instructions basically for a person like me, it seemed. But when I finally did get around to making it (with a recipe from Mallika Badrinath if I remember), I realised that it wasn't that difficult. The bogeyman faded away. I started reserving the lentil water after cooking dal and if you have a lemon handy, its just a couple of minutes after that.

Some recipes advocate soaking a tablespoon of tur dal and grinding it along with cumin, garlic and pepper. But I prefer crushing the spices roughly and mixing them into the strained lentil water I have reserved before hand.
Simmer gently and add the lemon juice once you have taken it off the flame. A mild tempering of asafoetida and mustard and a generous sprinkling of coriander leaves and you have a beautiful rasam ready. 

For one Sunday lunch of ours, it accompanied an Andhra mince curry and stir fried vegetables.

Lemon Rasam  (Elumichai Rasam)

 

 Ingredients:

 1 large tomato, chopped into 6 pieces

1/2 cup arhar dal(tur/pigeon pea/tuvaram parripu)

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

coriander leaves for garnish

salt to taste

Juice from 1 lemon

Crush coarsely :

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp peppercorns

1" ginger 

2-3 green chillies

Tempering:

1 tsp oil

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

2 dried red chillies

pinch of asafoetida

1. Cook the tur dal (lentils) with 3 cup of water in a pressure cooker. Drain the lentil water and reserve, add 1-2 tbsp of cooked and mashed lentils to the lentil water. Use rest of the lentils for some other preparation.

2. In a heavy bottomed pan, mix the crushed spices and chopped tomatoes with the lentil water, add salt and turmeric powder and bring to a slow boil, simmer gently for 6-8 minutes and then remove from flame.

3. After removing from heat, add the lemon juice and mix. Do not add while still on heat, it will turn bitter.

4. Heat oil for tempering in a small pan, add the mustard seeds and when they pop, add the asafoetida, curry leaves and dried red chillies. Remove from flame after half a minute and add to the rasam.

5. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Wishing all my readers a very Happy Diwali! Have a wonderful and safe festival of lights celebrating with all your friends and family!

Baked Lemon Sole with Spring Onions and Cherry Tomatoes

This absolutely beautiful baked lemon sole with spring onions and cherry tomatoes is a must-try recipe which I highly recommend. I adapted it from Jamie Oliver and it turned out succulent, light and packed with flavour. While the recipe doesn't call for it, I marinated the fish fillets (the original recipe was for whole fish) in a mixture of lemon juice, fresh coriander, green chillies, ginger and garlic pounded together - somewhat similar to this recipe I made earlier. I served the fish over some stir fried chill garlic noodles - awesome! This gorgeous beetroot apple salad on the side and the meal was complete.

We liked it so much, that I repeated the menu for my birthday dinner - replacing the noodles with a baked rice which also went very well with it. The best part about this recipe is that it doesn't take any time at all - apart from the marination, the actual cooking takes about 15 minutes. If you like your fish to have those nice grill marks, you could grill it on a hot griddle for about 5 minutes and then bake it in the oven for the remaining 10 minutes.

Feel free to experiment with other kinds of fish like sear if you prefer; also, you can substitute the cherry tomatoes with chopped tomatoes.

Baked Lemon Sole with Spring Onions and Cherry Tomatoes
(adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Ingredients:

Sole fillets, cleaned - 1 kg (about 6 pieces)
Marinade: Pound together
1 cup coriander leaves, cleaned and washed
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 green chillies, chopped roughly
1" piece of ginger chopped
5-6 garlic cloves
Olive oil - 1 tsp
salt to taste

Marinate the fillets in the above pounded mixture for about an hour.

Cherry tomatoes - 1 cup, halved
garlic
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
6-8 spring onions, finely sliced (reserve about 1/2 greens chopped)
1 tbsp dried oregano
Red wine vinegar - 1 tbsp
2 lemons - grated zest and juice
1/4 cup black olives, chopped
1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped
4 olive oil
salt to taste
freshly crushed black pepper - 1 tbsp

1.In a bowl add the cherry tomatoes, sliced garlic, oregano, spring onions, vinegar, salt, pepper, 2tbsp olive oil and the zest and juice of 1 lemon to it.
2. Mix well and spread over the bottom of a large baking dish or tray.
3. Place the marinated fish fillets on top of the spring onion mixture. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
4. Now add the olives, chopped coriander, juice and zest of the second lemon to the bowl that the tomatoes were in. Add the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil and then divide this mixture between the fish, placing an equal amount on top of each filler.
5. Cook in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes. You can grill the fish briefly on a griddle before baking it.

Beetroot Apple Salad

Beetroot is one vegetable which I think is better off raw or just steamed rather than done to death by overcooking. I love this beetroot porial we make - crunchy and juicy with a light tempering, my daughter loves it and so does this blogger's cutie pie 3 year old, as we found out when Arch visited with us last week!

This recipe is a lovely combination of beetroot and apples - an adaptation of Jamie Oliver's recipe for a Crunchy Raw Beetroot, Pear and Feta salad. I dropped the feta, substituted the pears with apples and grated the beetroot and apples instead of cutting them into thin strips. The dressing was a very simple lemon oil dressing I spiced up with a dash of tabasco to give it that zing.

I paired this with another lovely recipe from Jamie Oliver -a baked Lemon Sole which I served over some chilli garlic stir fried noodles. This turned out to be such a lovely meal that I made it again for my birthday dinner, minus the noodles. Arch missed it by a day and was served the leftovers for lunch the next day ;)

Beetroot Apple Salad

2 beetroots, peeled and grated
2 apples, peeled and grated
3-4 tbsp mint leaves

Juice of half a lemon
salt (sea salt if available)
1 tbsp olive oil
Freshly crushed black pepper -1/2 tsp
2-3 drops of Tabasco sauce

Toss the beetroot and apples with the dressing, adding some more lemon juice if needed. Garnish with mint leaves and serve cold.

Coconut Lemon Cake

I'm sure most of the Indian (and other) food blogging community knows about Meeta's fabulous blog What's for Lunch Honey - an incredible space for some brilliant recipes as well as breath taking photography.

I especially love her baking recipes and frequently find myself being drawn from one post to another marvelling at the ease which she puts together combinations of flavours and tastes, colours and textures.

One such unbeatable combination was Mum's Coconut Lemon Cake - I just had to try it out the moment I saw it. It also had some lovely memories of her childhood and the special bond she shares with her mother which made it a delightful post to read.

Well, I baked it in two moulds with the idea that I would take the larger one to a lunch at my friend's place and the other smaller one to keep at home. The larger one fell apart for some reason (maybe I turned it out too soon and it wasn't cool enough) and I was quite dismayed but I was in a hurry and just took it as it was - crumbs and all. I needn't have worried - the cake was so delicious that my friend asked if she could keep the rest!

The one at home was also very difficult to take out in one piece but I was more careful this time and managed better. But it got polished off really fast and I hardly had a couple of pieces left to click!

The taste of lemon along with the coconut was just pure brilliance - thanks Meeta (and Mum) for this lovely recipe! This goes to Monthly Blog Patrol (MBP) - Fruit Fare Yyes I know coconuts and lemons do not fit the usual concept of fruit - but they are fruits, so there! ;)

MBP was started by Coffee of The Spice Cafe and is being hosted this month by dear Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen

Hot & Sour Soup

A hectic Saturday finishing up chores, bank work, grocery and veggie shopping, dealing with carpenters who don't have a clue what they are supposed to do.......all this in the morning half. Spending time with my daughter, making lunch and attending a kiddie birthday party(thankfully just upstairs and all friends around) was the second half. We were tired and also stuffed on the delicious snacks at the birthday party, so didn't really want a full meal for dinner.

Soup sounded like just the ticket for the evening and I was in the mood for something really tongue tickling, but a clear soup since I didn't want it to be too heavy. What followed was my "look at what's in the 'fridge, throw most of them into a pot and let's see what happens" kind of cooking!
The clear soup condition meant that it was going to be Oriental so that pretty much led me to where I was going. Mixed veggies, minced garlic and chopped ginger (so hubby can take them out if he wants to), stock cubes, lemon juice and fragrant Gandhraj lemon leaves - and within 15 minutes we had ourselves steaming bowls of absolutely refreshing and filling soup. Not to mention tangy and tongue tickling!
You can add shredded boneless chicken pieces if you want, or shrimps or even tofu cubes; lemon grass is a great addition too instead of the Gandhraj lemon leaves. Home made vegetable stock or chicken stock and a dash of thai chilli paste are other ideas.

This post goes to AFAM - Lemon being hosted this month by Simple Indian Food. A Fruit A Month was begun by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual.

Hot & Sour Soup

1.5 cups mixed vegetables cut into thin long strips (carrots, mushrooms, beans, babycorn, bell peppers)

4 cloves garlic - minced

1 " piece of ginger - chopped big

2 slit green chillies

2 onions sliced (spring onions can be used)

2 soup cubes dissolved in 2 litres of warm water

salt to taste

1 tsp oil

juice of 1 small lemon

2 Gandhraj leaves

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add the minced garlic and chopped ginger and saute 1 minute.

2. Add the sliced onions and sliced green chillies and saute till translucent. The chopped vegetables go in next, stir fry on high for 4 minutes.

3. Lower flame and pour in the stock, add salt and bring to boil.

4. Cook covered on a low flame for about 10 minutes, till the vegetables are all just cooked but still retain their colour.

5. Put the Gandhraj leaves in and switch off the flame. Add the lemon juice and serve hot.

Thai Noodle Soup

I thought I was more or less done with soups once the dog days of summer began. But surprise, surprise! summer this year was much kinder than it usually is. We had lots of showers and cloudy days, cool evenings with a light breeze, balmy mornings with a hint of rain. Perfect weather for soup!

Lisa and Holler's blog event No Croutons Required is a perfect place to look for some great soups; check out the round ups here, here and here for some fabulous ideas.

I did, and came across this delicious soup posted by Pixie of You Say Tomato....which is actually a One pot meal in itself.

A few variations to the original recipe and I had a delicious meal in a bowl! The flavours of coconut milk, the vegetables, peanut made it so appetising and the best part of the whole meal was the lemon leaf my friend gave me; its called Gandhraj (Gondraaj by the Bongs!) and is comparable to the Kaffir lime leaves in flavour - just one leaf lent an incredible aroma to this dish.

Thai Noodle Soup goes to this month's edition of A Fruit A Month (AFAM) which is being hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes. June's chosen fruit is the Coconut and the originator of this event is Maheswari of Beyond the Usual.

Thai Noodle Soup

100gm Rice noodles halved
4 babycorn sliced lengthwise
1 carrot sliced thin
5 spring onions sliced thinly, greens chopped fine
1/4 cup mixed sprouts

1 tsp oil
2 dried red chillies
Half a coconut grated
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp haldi (turmeric powder)
1 tsp chilli powder
4 cups vegetable stock
juice from one lime
1 or 2 Gandhraj lemon leaves (I keep these frozen and they keep very well)
handful of chopped coriander leaves

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan.
2. Add the dried red chillies and the garlic and saute for half a minute.
3. Put in the sliced spring onions and saute for 2 minutes.
4. In the meantime, add one cup of warm water to the grated coconut and blend in the mixie. Remove from blender and strain well to extract the coconut milk. This is the first extract and is thick.
Add one and a half cups of warm water and return the strained coconut gratings to the blender and run it one more time. Run it through the blender again to get the second extract which will be much thinner.
5. Add the second extract of coconut milk, peanut butter, chilli powder, vegetable stock, babycorn, sprouts, carrots and salt and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce flame and simmer for about 10 minutes till the vegetables are cooked.
7. Add the first extract of coconut milk and the noodles and simmer on a low flame for another 3-4 minutes, then add the lemon juice and Gondhraj lemon leaves and cover tightly and leave for about 5 more minutes till the noodles are cooked through.
8. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and spring onion greens. Serve warm.

Lemon Coriander Chicken with Coconut Mango Sauce

Mangoes have been trickling into the market for the past 3 weeks and they are getting sweeter and tastier. New varieties for me to taste now that I am in Delhi - I spent the first 22 years of my life eating only the luscious Hapoos - those delicious golden Alphonsos from Ratnagiri. Then I moved to Chennai and after one year * of holding out I finally gave into the Banganapallis (called Benishan in the North but different from the Safeda) and was pleasantly surprised.

After tasting some more varieties like the Rumani, Neelam and Imam Pasand and now hearing about the magic of the Langda, Dashehari and Chausa varieties, I figure there is no point debating which one is superior. They have such different textures and flavour, why bother nit picking? try them all one by one and have mangoes throughout the season!!

In fact I am going to start trying the little known ones too whenever possible - the ones which are known only locally - Himsagar from West Bengal, Cherukurasam from AP, Imam Pasand from AP and TN (also known as Himayuddin), Kesar from Gujarat, Mankurado (scary hairy!) from Goa, Raspuri from Karnataka.....so many mangoes, so little time!

Well, as you may have guessed by now, I love mangoes and after I finish eating the mangoes for the first 2 weeks of the season, I then start thinking about how I can include it some dish or the other. This dish is an outcome of that train of thought this year.

My best friend is Konkani and I used to practically live there during my graduation and PG.'
One of the dishes Sandhya Pacchhi (maternal aunt in Konkani) used to make was saasam - a creamy gravy which combined the sweet flavours of fruits like pineapple or mango with the spice of mustard and red chillis and a hint of sourness from tamarind. I used to love this dish and have been wanting to make it for a long time. I did finally, but with a twist to the recipe and used it to as a sauce to accompany some grilled chicken (I adapted this recipe from Sig's delightful blog Live to Eat).

Saasam is usually not cooked and the fruit pieces are left whole. I pureed three fourth of the mangoes with the coconut and spices, omitted the tamarind since the mangoes were slightly sour, gently heated the sauce for about a few minutes just before serving and folded in a spoonful of cream.

The combination of the grilled chicken marinated in coriander, mint and lemon juice and the spicy sweet mango saasam was just fabulous!

Marinated chicken before baking

The chicken was juicy and moist and had absorbed the flavours of the herbs and spices beautifully. The mango sauce complemented the chicken and was unlike anything I had made before.

Lime Coriander Chicken with Coconut Mango Sauce

Chicken - 3 skinless breasts (400gm) with the bone
Sliced onions - 2
oil - 1/2 tbsp

Marinade:

Juice of 2 limes
Ginger - 2" piece finely chopped
Garlic - 4 cloves minced
Black peppercorns - 5-6
Green chillies -2-3 chopped fine
Mint leaves - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Salt to taste


Coconut Mango Sauce (Ambe Saasam)

Coconut - 1 cup chopped pieces
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies -3-4 (tone this down to 2 if you don't like it too spicy)
Jaggery grated - 1 tsp
Mangoes - 2 peeled, seeded and diced (about 2 cups)
salt to taste
Cream - 1 tbsp


1. Wash and clean the chicken and keep aside.
2. Pound the ginger, garlic, pepper, cumin and coriander till coarsely crushed, add the mint and coriander leaves and pound again. Finally add the lime juice and salt and mix well.
3. Marinate the cleaned chicken in this mixture for about two hours in the refrigerator.
4. For the saasam, grind the coconut pieces, mustard, jaggery, red chillies and three fourth of rhe mango pieces to a smooth paste adding a little water if needed. Add salt and the rest of the mango pieces and keep aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 350C, heat oil in a pan and add the sliced onion and saute till a little browned - about 4 minutes.
6. Take a glass baking dish with a lid, put in the fried onions at the bottom and arrange the chicken breasts on top of the onions. Pour the remaining marinade over the pieces and cover with the lid.
7. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes till the chicken is cooked well.
8. Remove from the dish and pan fry each piece for a few minutes on high flame to brown them a bit.
9. Heat the mango sauce for a few minutes till it is just barely warm and gently fold in the cream. Remove from flame and transfer to a serving bowl.
10. To serve, put one piece of the chicken on a plate, a portion of steamed rice on the side and spoon the mango sauce over the chicken and the rice.

Babycorn, Cherry Tomatoes & Sprouts Salad with Feta Cheese

This is a beautiful salad - winter fresh veggies and lightly steamed sprouts drizzled with a light salad dressing bursting with the tanginess of lime; its piquant flavour balanced with crumbly salty feta cheese and crunchy lettuce.

Delightfully light and yet so satisfying that you can make it your meal - my friend almost did and I had to steer him gently to the rest of the dishes on the table!

One forkful says it all - no stories needed.

This salad made so flavourful with a simple lime juice dressing goes to Jihva for Ingredients - Lime/Lemon being hosted at The Spice Cafe this month; the event itself is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi and while I have been following it for a long time now, this is the first time I am contributing.

Babycorn, Cherry Tomatoes & Sprouts Salad with Feta Cheese

Babycorn - 6-8
Cherry tomatoes - 100gms
Mixed bean sprouts - 100 gms
Coriander leaves - handful
Iceberg Lettuce - 3-4 leaves
Spring onions - 3-4 (not the greens)
Feta cheese - 4-5 tablespoons - crumbled or diced into small pieces

Dressing:
Juice of one small lime
Red wine vinegar - 1 tablespoon
Olive oil - 2 tablespoon
Salt
Freshly crushed black pepper


1. Wash the babycorn and cut lengthwise into halves. Rinse the sprouts.
2. Boil salted water in a large vessel and add the babycorn and sprouts to it. Turn off the gas after a minute and keep covered for another 3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, wash and halve the cherry tomatoes. Slice the spring onions thinly.Wash the coriander leaves and lettuce thoroughly, drain water and keep aside. Crumble or dice the feta cheese.
4. Combine dressing ingredients, mixing them together briskly.
5. Drain the babycorn and sprouts;keep aside till cool.
6. Take a salad bowl and put in the babycorn, tomatoes, sprouts and onions, tear the lettuce into bite sized pieces and add it along with the whole coriander leaves - then toss in the feta cheese.
7. Pour in the salad dressing a little at a time and gently toss till well combined.