Tomato Rice

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Here is the Tomato rice which i made for today's lunch.

Ingredients

2 cups raw rice (cook with less water in such a way each grain is separate)

4 large tomatoes
1 Tablespoon grated ginger or 1 " piece of ginger
4 to 5 green chillies (adjust to taste)
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 Tablespoon oil
whole spices (4 cloves, 1" piece cinnamon sticks -3, 4 cardamoms, 3 bay leaves)
salt to taste

Method

1) Blend tomatoes, ginger and green chilli into paste

2) Heat oil, fry whole spice for few seconds and add the ground paste and fry until oil separates from the paste. It takes around 5 to 6 mins and the quantity reduces to half.

3) add coriander powder, salt and mix with the rice.

server hot with Raita

Variations

1) You can add chilli powder if required
2) You can fry crushed garlic & chopped onions before adding the paste after frying whole spices.
3) You can add curry leaves too along with the whole spices

Tomato Soup

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

This soup is very quick to make with fresh ingredients. This is same as the Rasam I posted before but with some less ingredients to make it quick but still fresh and great taste.

Cooking time : 10 mins
Serves : 3

Ingredients

3 large tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons corn flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
salt to taste
Method

1) Blend tomatoes,garlic & cumin powder with 1/2 cup water into very smooth paste and keep aside

2) In a pan heat olive oil, add the tomato paste and bring it to boil. Meanwhile mix 2 teaspoons corn flour in 1/2 cup water and add to the pan and cook for couple of minutes

3) Now add sugar, salt, pepper and dried basil and serve hot.

Tomato chutney

Monday, January 5, 2009

This is similar to the eggplant chutney I have posted except that we will not use tamarind since tomatoes already have the sour taste.

Ingredients

3 to 4 large tomatoes

3 to 4 green chillies chopped (adjust to taste)
1 medium size onion chopped
1 teaspoon ginger chopped
salt to taste

for tempering

1 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon urud dal
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
curry leaves (optional)

Method

Boil the water and put the tomatoes in boiling water and keep for 2 to 3 minutes and remove and cool them or place in a cold water to cool them faster. Remove the skin, mash them and keep aside

Heat Oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add cumin seeds and asafoetida, turmeric powder, urud dal and fry until it turns brown. Now add green chillies, curry leaves, ginger and onions and fry for 3 to 4 mins. Add the mashed Tomatoes and salt and let it cook for 4 to 5 mins.

Garnish with coriander leaves and eat with hot rice or Roti

Uses and Nutrition

Tomatoes contain lycopene, one of the most powerful natural antioxidants, which, especially when tomatoes are cooked, has been found to help prevent prostate cancer. Lycopene has also been show to improve the skin's ability to protect against harmful UV rays.Tomato varieties are available with double the normal vitamin C, 40 times normal vitamin A, high levels of anthocyanin, and two to four times the normal amount of lycopene.

Rasam (Soup with tomatoes, Garlic, tamarind)

Monday, December 22, 2008

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons Tamarind extract thick
2 medium sized tomatoes

1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppers
3 to4 cloves of crushed garlic
4 to5 red chillies
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida (optional)
salt to taste
curry leaves (optional)
coriander leaves for garnishing (optional)
Method

1) Grind cumin seeds and black pepper to powder and add crushed garlic to this mix and keep
aside

2) Blend tamarind extract and chopped tomatoes to paste and keep aside.

3) Heat Oil in a pan, add 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, once they crack add asafoetida, cumin-pepper-garlic mix, red chillies and curry leaves and stir-fry for 30 seconds to a minute and now add the tomato-tamarind paste, add 4 cups of water and bring it to boil

4) Add salt to taste and garnish with coriander leaves.

You can eat this with rice along with any vegetable curry or drink as a soup.

Notes:

1) If you need spicy rasam you can break the red chillies