Rightly or wrongly some dishes were always associated with certain communities and some were usually thought to be not so typical of a community. Well, atleast we were of that thinking when it comes to aapam so needless to say it is not like I was very familiar with a side dish for it. Growing up in Chennai meant I had access to the variety of dishes popular among different communities and aapam was one such favourite of mine. It is usually served with sweetened coconut milk which I must say is not my favourite. I find it a bit bland and not lifting up the aapam but sometimes I am happy to tuck in. Couple of years back a friend and neighbour of ours had her MIL visiting her and she was kind enough to invite us to have aapam and sodhi. At that time I was not a food blogger but was interested in recipes. It was during a recent visit that I quickly asked her for the recipe and could not get the details. Based on what I picked up and tasted, I started making my version and it goes down very well. I am aware that usually sodhi is considered a laborious dish as it involves making coconut milk of desired thickness and most traditional recipes I was told do not use tomatoes. My version and the one I was offered uses tomato and kept things rather simple. It tastes great with aapam and you could have it with anything like dosa, idli or even rice. I add soya chunks and peas to it to enhance the nutritive value and also because I do not have to prepare vegetables separately. Here is how I make it…
1 cup peas
1 onion, finely chopped
Handful of soya chunks, soaked and boiled (or cooked as per package instruction)
1 sachet creamed coconut or 1 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon sambar powder
1 teaspoon chilly powder
Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder
Heat oil and allow the mustard seeds to splutter and then add the onions and cook until soft
Add the peas, turmeric powder asafoetida tomatoes and cook until mushy
Add the sambar powder, chilly powder, required water and also the coconut cream
Allow to boil and all the raw smell goes away and then add required salt and it is ready to serve!
Delicious sodhi..
ReplyDeletethank you so much for sending this delicious sodhi to healing foods.
ReplyDeletecould you please send me the picture of your dish too