food writing – TASTE MEMORY

There are some recipes that you don’t want to mess up or change, while a few recipes constantly evolve. For me, of late, this has been my Rasam and my homemade pasta sauce.

My days, suddenly, are jam-packed. And there’s a new rhythm at home. My kids are playing mostly on their own. Lots of sketching. Scooter-riding. Basketball dribbling. We have moved to Mumbai. I have lost my sweetest maids, and Yuvi is without his Gurgaon friends. But we have each other to cope with this change.

Amidst our busy evening, when the kids make plans to hit the outdoors, I realised I have to make something different than just Kadi chawal or Dal chawal. So, I made Rasam and we all ate it with all our hearts. Thanks to the next-door food store that delivered Appalam papads that went perfectly with it.

I went back to my cousin, Kanchan Rathi’s audio notes. Found her recipe and there, I was ready to make it.

Recipe: Kanchan’s Rasam

Ingredients:

2 tomatoes
7-10 cloves of garlic
black pepper (1-2 tsp)
Arhar Dal (optional) 1-2 tsp
Cumin seeds – 2 tsp (for spice mix), ½ tsp (for tadka)
turmeric powder
asafoetida
salt to taste
oil/ghee
fresh tamarind pulp (I use around 3/4^th cup)
coriander leaves
mustard seeds
curry leaves
dried red chillies (I never have it when I make rasam)

Method:

1. First up, roast cumin seeds, arhar dal (optional), and whole black pepper in a kadai for 2-3 minutes.

2. Now, clean the garlic and get 6-10 cloves of garlic. It depends on how you like it.

3. Take a mortar and pestle and ground the spice mix. You can also use the grinding machine. This time around, I started pounding with the black pepper, then cumin seeds and the dal, and lastly, in the same mixture, I added in the cloves of garlic and coarsely grinded it too.

4. Now, I take a medium-sized steel vessel. Add some ghee. Let it heat up. Throw in some mustard seeds, asafetida, cumin seeds, dried red chillies (optional), curry leaves and turmeric powder. Mix it a bit and add the spice mix you made with your pestle. Give it a stir.

5. Chop the tomatoes (my cousin squeezes them out with her fingers for a rustic touch) and hand-pound them a bit for a coarse touch. Add these to tadka. Now, add in the tamarind pulp (strain it) and a couple of glasses of water (boil it beforehand if possible).

6. Once the Rasam has boiled for 6-10 minutes, add your chopped coriander leaves, salt to taste. Give it a taste, and if it tastes well, switch off the flame. Kanchan says, the more you boil your rasam, the tastier it is.

7. Serve hot with Appalam papad and hot rice.

I hope you like the dish as we did it tonight. The pasta sauce recipe is coming up tomorrow. Again, it’s an evolved version. And I love it.

2021 was a tremendous year for me. Different battles to fight. Both on the outside and the inside. And cooking went on the back burner. I imagine myself sitting with my girl, telling her how I survived the year. An unplanned pregnancy, my mother’s cancer treatment, raising a toddler with different views at home, coming face to face with my insecurities–there’s been so much on my mind. And, there is COVID-19. Can’t even begin with that one.

I came to live with my parents during my pregnancy, with my husband and my toddler. The toughest day that I can remember was the first day of getting covid. I was in my eight, and the acidity almost killed me. But then I survived.

What I can’t get over with is the fact that my mum had to undergo so much. Mammogram, chemotherapy, hair loss, her own insecurities. I can feel what she’s going through, and it really makes me want to think, this could be it. Life is so uncertain. It can change in a second. But she survived it. And she even defeated covid in the middle of her chemotherapy. Damn.

So, here I am, telling you how I struggled last year. And I’m not ready to look at the bright side. Anxiety only grows deeper. But here’s the magical part.

I was recently blessed with a daughter. Hell, I always dreamt that. And I have survived my ten years of marriage. How, I don’t know. Mom is getting her health back. It’s wonderful when I see her name on my phone, five times a day.

But, I don’t want to cook. Writing is easier than cooking. Those kitchen bottles bring no curiosity in me. I don’t want pasta. I just want to survive this journey of motherhood. And keep a bit of my mum’s recipes on my bedside table. And I shall be all right.

Here are a few snippets from the posts I shared on my page. I started writing these tiny posts when I was down with COVID.

That’s about it for 2021. I hope you combat 2022 with a fierce passion to bring a new ray of hope in your life. May God show mercy.