Thursday, January 13, 2011

Winter Warmer from Miss Masala

Days are hotting up but chill is still there. The weather makes you feel lazy and want to curl upwith a nice book and optionally munch on something that you obviously had not cooked.Aha,its a wish. Apart from such wishes we still feel the need for hot soup in the evenings and this is a simple tamatar shorba from Mallika Basu or Miss Masala which is actually the name of her cookbook. Simple,quick and spicy.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes: 4-5 medium -big size chopped

Cumin Seeds:1/2 tsp
Garlic Cloves: 2-3 small sliced/crushed
Oil: 1-2 tbsp

Fresh Red Chilly: 1 chopped
Brown Sugar: 2+ tsp depending on heat of the chilli
Cilantro/Coriander: 1 tbsp chopped

Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Kasuri Methi): 1/2 tsp soaked in 2-3 tbsp hot water

Salt:as per taste

Preparation:
Chop tomatoes into small pieces. Peel,mince/crush garlic cloves.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan. Add in cumin seeds,and garlic. When they sizzle,mix in tomato pieces,brownsugar,sliced red chilly,cilantro chopped and a pinch of salt.

Cook in high flame stirring occasionally until the tomato turns pulpy mess.Meanwhile soak the dried fenugreek leaves or kasuri methi in hotwater. Remove the pan from heat,stir in the methi and puree the contents using a hand blender or normal blender (after cooling).

Adjust salt and enjoy piping hot.



This is supposed to be a Mughlai style soup.Normally,Mughal cuisine can be medium hot to hot hot.The spiciness of the soup depends on the chillies used.If your chilly is mild then adjust the sugar accordingly.If using fresh green chillies, then make sure,you remove them before blending. The Kasuri methi is used to balance the sweetness of the tomatoes and sugar with the spiciness of the chillies.It adds a tangy taste and enhances the soup.I tried it first with green chillies when it was very spicy,but second time with mild chillies. My family preferred it second time while personally preferred the first time.Do adjust the ingredients as per your taste.

This soup warms T&T:Quick Indian Cooking at BengaliCuisine,an event by Lakshmi.

4 Comments:

Priya Suresh said...

Slurp, tomato shorba looks truly tempting and delicious..

chef and her kitchen said...

Lovely comforting soup for this weather..looks nice..

Uj said...

A hot bowl of soup in this weather seems perfect :)

Mallika said...

Thanks so much for giving this a shot! Happy 2011.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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