Rasa Vadai - Lentil Fritters in Tomato Soup

 The person who introduced me to this dish is my beautiful grandmother Ella. She must have been a great foodie in her days.  All I know is that she was a fabulous cook!  Every time she made rasam, she would make these lentil fritters and they would be dunked into the rasam and served with rice.

Rasam is a thin vegetarian soup that is more like a broth, tangy and hot and perfect for having as an appetizing drink or with some rice as a meal.  You might be familiar with mulligatawny soup which translates to pepper water or, in other words, rasam. The British gave it that fancy name and it is now popular all over the world.

Anyway, back to my grandmother Ella. She would fry up these crisp lentil fritters and leave them in the rasam to soak and it made a healthy and delicious meal.  It is much later that I came to know that this dish is a speciality of the little town where my parents are from.  Therefore, I have to include it in my list of recipes!  

Tomato Rasam

This recipe is for my daughter.  Every time she has the flu, has a cold or a throat ache, she will tell me, "amma, can you please make me some rasam?"

Onam - The Festival

 I spent the last few days documenting the recipes that are considered staple for the Onam meal. But what is Onam? Onam is a cultural festival celebrated in the Southern Indian state of Kerala to mark the end of the monsoons and start of the harvesting.  It is a festival that has its roots in Hindu mythology but is celebrated by Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike.  And if you are a Keralite living overseas, you would celebrate it with equal fervour and live over your memories while creating new ones for your children.  This blog is for my Aussie friends - to give them a quick run down of the festival and its significance.

Onam 2021

 

Onam, the harvest festival celebrated by people of Kerala irrespective of religious beliefs is a food fest. Various vegetables prepared and served on a banana leaf is the highlight of the festival.  Back home we used to be entertained by various sideshows on the street during Onam.  There was always a Onam fair, street dancers, decked out elephants that strolled along, boat races, new movies that were released on the day, flower carpet competitions and snack making that started a few days ahead of the main celebrations.