Tomato Pachadi / Raita

Tomato Pachadi/Raita

Tomato is an everyday vegetable in our household. I would normally feel very uncomfortable if I had anywhere less than 4 tomatoes in stock. I think it is such a versatile vegetable and possibilities are endless with tomatoes. In a way, tomato does amaze me. I was always used to having cooked tomato. My husband was insisting on me eating more fresh vegetables in the form of salads and so one fine day I tried adding tomato to the channa sundal when snacking at work. Few minutes later my mouth felt funny and kind of itchy and burning. I thought it may be the tomato but just ignored it. Couple of years later when I was tested for allergies for a different reason they found that I was allergic to uncooked tomatoes. I found it quite strange coz I seem to be bothered only when I eat uncooked cut tomato but tomato juice does no harm.

My mother-in-law does a far simpler version of tomato raita wherein she mixes cut tomatoes with curd and seasons. However, due to my allergies and preference to my mom’s raita recipe, I always do it my mom’s way.

3 big tomatoes cut into bite sized cubes

2 green chillies

1 cup yogurt/curd

Mustard seeds

Few curry leaves

Turmeric powder

Chilly powder

Cooking oil

Asafoetida

In a kadai heat oil and put the mustard seeds. After the seeds stop spluttering, add some turmeric powder and curry leaves and ensure they do not get burnt. Add the green chillies and tomatoes. As I prefer to have the tomatoes a bit chunky in the raita but at the same time I want it to be well cooked with in its own juice, I add a little bit of salt at this stage. Once the tomatoes are cooked, add some chilly powder. Cook for a couple of more minutes and season. Add the yogurt/curd and if desired garnish with coriander leaves.

I make this recipe atleast once a week to go with lime rice. It tastes great when mixed with plain rice and even curd rice.

Tomato is supposed to be rich in Vitamin A and C and is one of the five-a-day veggie. I find this a yummy way to have the healthy and beautiful tomato !! And as I understand, tomatoes are considered as fruit and not veggie !!

Lime Rice

Lime Rice

I remember my mom use to make the variety rices (‘kalandha saadham’) on one of those days we celebrate Pongal. It was the day the ladies of the house would lay down the turmeric (manjal kothu) and place balls of colourful rices. The rice would have been mixed with kumkum to give red colour, turmeric to give yellow colour. We would also place balls of sweet pongal (chakkarai pongal) and ven pongal (savoury pongal), vadai, thayir vadai all saved from our pongal feast. I was told we have to keep them aside so it can be offered on these leaves the next day. It was important for the daughter of the house i.e. paternal aunt comes home and takes part in this ritual as it is suppose to be for the well being of my brother. The loving sister that I was, I would happily sit with my granny, mom, aunt and cousins and complete the ritual. The offerings were suppose to be eaten by crows. After completing the ritual, it was lunch time. Mom would usually make her classic ‘Puliyodharai’ (tamarind rice) and coconut rice and sometimes lime rice. We would eat them with vadams (traditional south Indian crisps). My mom so wanted us to be at home for Pongal this year and I was looking forward to doing this ritual but unfortunately we could not make it on time.
Now, whenever I have a long night I tend to wake up late very exhausted. Not to mention, my baby boy would be quite restless as well due to lack of sleep. All this would usually result in very limited time to cook and this recipe saves my day then. My husband and I cannot quite have a meal without any vegetables so I usually try to bring in some veggies when I make lime rice.
A funny story that comes to my mind when I make this is that my brother was saying he was trying to make lime rice and in order to get the yellow colour, he kept squeezing limes hoping to get the colour. Eventually the rice went too sour and remained white obviously !! Needless to say, he is a typical South Indian bachelor. I hope this simple recipe helps bachelors like him.
So here is my recipe..
1 cup cooked rice (mushy rice is not suitable, ideally grains should be separate)
1 big grated carrot
3-4 grean chillies finely chopped
1 teaspoon mustard seed
Pinch of asafoetida
¼ teaspoon fenugreek powder
Cooking oil
Turmeric powder
Few curry leaves
1 or 2 lime ofcourse
Take about 1 teaspoon oil and put the mustard seeds. Once the seeds splatter, turn the heat down down and add asafoetida, fenugreek powder, turmeric powder, green chillies and curry leaves. Add the grated carrot and stir. Once the carrot start to wilt, turn the stove off and add the rice. I try not to overcook the carrots so loss of nutrition is minimum. Add required salt and squeeze the lime and mix. If you like, you could add channa dal and urad dal in the tempering as well but I usually do not do that as my husband does not like it.
I never really cared for difference between lime and lemon when in India as everything was yellow and sour. Over here, it turns out that lime is sour and I find lemon tasteless. I try not to add lime when dish is very hot as it may turn bitter. In order to make the meal more wholesome I normally serve this with Okra raita (lady’s finger pachadi) or tomato raita. Do not ignore the benefits of carrot as they also help prevent cancer and also good for night vision.

Dal Makhani

Dal Makhani

When I was in school, my friends and I went out for dinner to Dhaba Express. As my family’s diet was more traditional we would usually go to South Indian restaraunts only but most of them would serve North Indian food. So places like Dhaba Express was one that I would have been able to visit only with my friends. It was then that I fell for a lovely dish that came in a small pot. A friend ordered it for us and when it arrived I was surprised to see that it was brown in colour as I was expecting dal in yellow colour. I tried it and liked it a lot and so loved its taste lingering in the mouth. Not sure why but for years from then I never happened to eat this dish elsewhere. Sometime back my husband and I went to Aberdeen to visit friends and also do our quarterly Indian grocery shopping. I was trying to get Urad dal to make idli but the shop only had the whole Urad dal with skin. As always, called up my helpline i.e. my mom to find if I could use it and my grandmother suggested that it could be used and whole dal with skin was healthy. I had also got the broken skinned Urad dal not knowing which one we will prefer. I first tried idlis with the latter and was happy with it and hence did not get to use the lovely whole dal. Not having the heart to waste it I thought I will pamper myself by trying Dal Makhani. There was another reason, we do not normally like rajma but this could be a good recipe to take it in.

Urad dal is also called black gram and is said to be a good source of calcium and some iron as well. Kidney bean apparently is said to be rich in folate, dietary fibre and manganese. It is also said to help prevent cancer, absorb iron and prevent tooth decay, just to mention a few. I wish we could like it more.

Anyway, in my bid to bring all this goodness together in this simple recipe, here is what I do:

1 medium sized red onion

1.5 cups tomato puree

1 teaspoon chilli powder

Cooking oil

100 ml cream (single or double depending on my mood really)

½ cup Black gram

1 handful of rajma or kidney beans

Soak rajma and black gram for about 6 hours and pressure cook. I like the dal to be slightly mushy but by their nature, they tend to hold shape unless mashed. In a heavy bottomed vessel add about 1 tablespoon cooking oil and fry the onions. Once onions are transparent add the tomato puree and cook until they come together. Add the chilli powder, stir and add the cooked dal. I normally retain the water in which the dal was cooked to add to the dish as it gives good colour and is nutritious. Add required amount of salt and allow the mixture to boil for about 10 minutes so the lentils can absorb the flavour from tomato and onion. Add cream (more the merrier but I would urge you not to add much as it is supposedly high in saturated fat). The flavour of this recipe really lies in simmering this mixture for a long time. I usually simmer for atleast 30 minutes and even as I make the chapattis. You could mash some of the dal and/or add the water in which dal was cooked to achieve desired consistency.

This is a very simple recipe which is usually very rich but I try to keep it healthy by not using butter (though the name is makhani) as I am happy with the taste. Usually when I have this on the menu my other meal would not contain much fat just to keep the balance right.

When using pulses and lentils that need to be soaked, please ensure they are washed a good few times as otherwise some toxins that they are said to release could be harmful.