Put your senses to test!!

Rather than sharing recipes, today I would like to confess my love for the art of cooking. Like most girls of my age, I too had spent all my time studying during my school and college days. Finally when I got married, I had no time to experiment with my cooking. Expectations were running high, and I was against a race to prove myself in comparison with others. How then did I manage to satisfy my palate? The reason I say my palate is because if I can satisfy myself with my cooking, I can satisfy anyone. I'm my own critic and find my tastebuds very difficult to satisfy. 

My foundation for love of cooking was laid very early in my life in the form of my mother's training. As a toddler I always found place in her arms as she used to carry me around all the time. As I grew, my school lessons were tutored by my mother in the kitchen as she went about her daily chores. So the sounds and smells of food registered very early in me. Much later in life when I tried to satisfy my new household, all I had to do was to recollect all the sounds and smells and visions of my mother's cooking. The spluttering of mustard seeds in warm oil, the hissing of curry leaves in it and the smell following the sounds, the sound of coconut being scraped and the ladle against the pan, the hoot of the pressure cooker and the pounding of 'masala'..... This and many more had constituted a major part of my world for so many years. It was amazing to realize how all this had deeply registered in my mind, and as a result, cooking came naturally. Brainwashing indeed it was, and that which came in so handy when it was time for testing the lessons I had imbibed.

It is said one who loves to eat, would cook well. I have found that to be true in my case, so I would encourage all the young and old to simply enjoy the joy of cooking. The result will be automatically divine!!

Thoran

Ingredients

2 cups of any one of these vegetables (finely chopped) – beetroot, carrot, beans, snow beans, cabbage
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Udith Dal (Ullutham paruppu) – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – few
Oil – 2 tsps
Green chillies – 2
Coconut – ½ cup (grated)

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add udith dal and curry leaves. Sauté till the udith dal turns golden brown. Then add any one of the vegetables and add a glass of water. Cover the pan and let the vegetables cook on medium flame. In a mixie add ½ cup coconut & green chillies and grind to a fine paste with few tbsps water. Once the vegetables are well cooked, add this mixture and sauté well. Thoran is ready to be served.

Olan

Ingredients

Black eyed beans (Van Payaru) – ½ cup, soaked overnight and pressure cooked
White gourd (Elavan) – 2 cups, cut into thin slices
Yellow pumpkin (Mathan) – 2 cups, cut into thin slices
Colocasia / Taro (Chembu) – 2 cups, cut into thin slices
Green chillies – 3, slit
Coconut milk – 2 cups
Coconut oil – 2 tbsps
Curry leaves – a few
Salt – as required
Water – to boil, as required

Preparation Method
Put a glass of water to boil and add colocasia, black eyed beans, yellow pumpkin, white gourd and green chillies. Once it is semi cooked, add salt as required. Once the vegetables are well cooked, add 2 cups of coconut milk slowly keeping the gas on medium flame. Let it simmer and take care so that it does not boil. Once it begins to simmer, turn off gas. Add 2 tbsps of coconut oil and curry leaves with the stalk. Olan is ready to be served.

Tomato Rasam

Ingredients

Tomatoes – 4 nos (grind 3 nos to a fine paste and finely chop the 4th tomato)
Tamarind paste of size of half a lemon
Rasam Pwd – 4 tbsps
Water – 2 glasses (or depending on how dilute you want the Rasam)
Salt – As required
Turmeric pwd – 1 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Jeera / Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Refined oil – 1 tsp
Curry Leaves – few
Asaphoetida – 2 tsps (diluted in 1 tsp water)

For Garnish

Coriander leaves – ½ cup – finely chopped

Preparation Method

Boil 1 finely chopped tomato in a glass of water with little salt. Then add the ground tomato paste. After 2 minutes add the tamarind paste and let it boil till the raw smell of tamarind disappears. Add a glass of water to make the preparation dilute. Then add rasam pwd. Finally when it starts to simmer, add finely chopped coriander leaves and asaphoetida mixture. Turn off gas. In a separate kadai, heat 1 tsp oil, add mustard seeds, once it splutters, add curry leaves and jeera. Add this to the rasam. Rasam is ready. This can be had with rice.

Rasam can be made in various other varieties.

Garlic Rasam
Just add 1 cup of garlic (peeled) with tomato in the beginning while putting them to boil.

Ginger Rasam
Add ½ cup of grated garlic along with tomato in the beginning while putting them to boil.

The other varieties of Rasam will be discussed later.

Sambhar

Ingredients

Any one of these vegetables – Baby onion (2 cups), drumstick (2 sticks), brinjal/egg plant (small – 4 nos), radish (2 nos), capsicum (2 nos)
Toor Dal – 4 handfuls (cooked well in the pressure cooker & mashed to form a paste)
Tamarind paste of the size of a small lemon
Turmeric pwd – 1 tsp
Sambhar pwd – 4 tbsps
Jaggery – 1 tsp
Water – 1 glass (for boiling the vegetables)
Salt – As required

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 2 tsps
Methi seeds / Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp
Curry Leaves – few
Asaphoetida – 2 tsps (diluted in 1 tsp water)
Refined oil – 1 tsp


Preparation Method
Cook toor dal well in the pressure cooker and mash to form a paste and keep aside. In a separate vessel boil any one of the vegetables mentioned in 1 glass of water. In case baby onions are being used, sauté them separately in a tsp of oil till they are pink in colour and then put it to boil. This way the onions will taste better. Add a little salt, just enough for the onions. After a minute add the tamarind paste and let it boil. Add the turmeric pwd. Once it starts boiling and the raw smell of tamarind disappears, add the sambhar powder little by little so as not to form lumps. After a minute or two, add the mashed toor dal. Add salt as required and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Finally add 1 tsp of jaggery and turn off the gas. In a separate kadai, heat 1 tsp oil, add mustard seeds, once it splutters, add curry leaves and methi seeds. Turn off the gas and add this to the sambhar. Finally add the asaphoetida mixture and the sambhar is ready. This can be had with rice, idli, dosa and vada.