TOMATO SOUP

This is one of the easiest and definitely much simpler yet really tasty and filling.

Ingredients

serves 2

Tomatoes - 4 medium sized (or 2 if big)

Garlic, crushed - 4 cloves

White pepper - 2 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Sugar - one pinch

Butter - 1 tsp

Cheese of your choice - for garnishing

How to make it

Puree the tomatoes with salt.

Heat a kadai and add the butter. When it has melted, add the garlic, pepper stir well for 10 seconds.

Add the pureed tomatoes and cook for some time, partly covered.

Adjust salt and spice and garnish with slight cheese( I used grated Mozzarella) on the top and serve hot.

p.s. - I added a little amount of rice flour mixed in water to get a thicker consistency. Just the same method of use as we do for sambhar.

BEANS USILI

Vj loves usili. Its one of the first dishes I cooked for him back in the initial days after coming to US. Usili is made with other combos too. Eg, Capsicum, Cluster beans. But French beans remains the evr classic paruppuusili.

Ingredients

serves 2

French Beans- 1.5 cup, cut into 1" pieces and par boiled in boiling water for 3 mins

Toor dal / tuvaram paruppu - 1/2 cup

Channa dal / kadala paruppu - 1 tbsp

Urad dal / Ulutham paruppu - 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Dried red chillies - 3 to 4

Hing/asafoetida (kayam) - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Oil - 2-3 tbsp

Salt - to taste

How to make it

Wash and soak the toor dal and channa dal (you can put them together) for about 1 hour

Once soft, grind this coarsely with red chillies, turmeric, some salt and hing and as little water as possible (Sprinkle a few drops so the mixture comes together a bit).

The next step is to cook this dal mixture with the asparagus. Its really that simple. There are different ways to cook the dal.

Pour copious amounts of oil (you need atleast 3-4 tbsp) into a pan and stir-fry the dal mixture. This will take anywhere between 7-10 minutes

Once the dal mixture breaks into small pieces and is not sticky anymore, empty it into a cup and keep it aside.

In the same pan, pour required oil, add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add urad dal.

Add the beans. Once its cooked add the fried dal mixture and keep it for about 5 mins. Check on salt