Colors For Lunch - Cuisine From South India
Dakshin is the word applied to south Indian cooking. The food is ablaze with intricate colors and textures, with every little detail uniquely its own. The soup here, called Rasam, is a blend of tamarind, tomatoes - and any vegetables left over from the garden. Sometimes it is thick like a sambar, and can be poured over rice; other times it is so thin it can be drunk like a watery V8 that is piquant and tasty.
I prepared coconut curd salad, made with home-made yogurt and cilantro, and tempered with mustard and cumin seeds. The carrot-currant-cabbage salad has a light lemon dressing, and has minute amounts of red and green peppers, some hot and fiery.
This broth is the beginning of squash soup, a mixture of pureed squash and chicken broth. Chorizo sausage and turmeric add the color. Potatoes are cooked, then fried, and added to this soup. Like east-Indian sambars, there is always a touch of buttermilk or cream.
When working out in blustery cold weather, the spices in these dishes are warming, lingering long after the meal is finished.
Dakshin is the word applied to south Indian cooking. The food is ablaze with intricate colors and textures, with every little detail uniquely its own. The soup here, called Rasam, is a blend of tamarind, tomatoes - and any vegetables left over from the garden. Sometimes it is thick like a sambar, and can be poured over rice; other times it is so thin it can be drunk like a watery V8 that is piquant and tasty.
I prepared coconut curd salad, made with home-made yogurt and cilantro, and tempered with mustard and cumin seeds. The carrot-currant-cabbage salad has a light lemon dressing, and has minute amounts of red and green peppers, some hot and fiery. 
This broth is the beginning of squash soup, a mixture of pureed squash and chicken broth. Chorizo sausage and turmeric add the color. Potatoes are cooked, then fried, and added to this soup. Like east-Indian sambars, there is always a touch of buttermilk or cream.
When working out in blustery cold weather, the spices in these dishes are warming, lingering long after the meal is finished.
