Indian inspiration

I was the host of our most recent girls' dinner. I have always loved the flavors and scents of Indian cuisine. I even bought an Indian cookbook several years ago, but was intimidated by the ingredient lists and many components to an Indian dinner, so the cookbook sat fairly untouched on the bookshelf. So, for this dinner I decided to buck up and at least attempt an Indian dinner. The sources for the menu came from Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking by Julie Sahni and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.

So, after I planned my (ambitious) menu I needed to gather some of those specialized ingredients. I found my treasure trove at the Indian Supermarket in Silver Spring, MD. Pictured here are just a sampling of the many spices and legumes that I picked up.
In the next few days, I'll be posting some of the recipes that came from this dinner, but for tonight, here's the recipe for the soup course: Curry-Laced Tomato-Lentil Broth (tomato rasam). Adapted from Sahni. This soup was very fragrant and the flavor of the curry leaves intensified the soup's flavor.

Lessons learned from this dish: I probably should have thinned this out a bit with some water before serving since the soup was quite thick.

Get the recipe here.

Curry-Laced Tomato-Lentil Broth
Ingredients
2 c. tomato puree (I used the canned stuff, but you could use fresh or canned whole tomatoes and rough chop them)
3 c. cooked lentils (I used a mix of French and brown lentils)
1 c. water
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. cayenne
1 Tbs. minced onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp course salt, or to taste
1 Tbs lemon juice

For the spice perfumed butter:
1 Tbs. ghee (this is basically just browned butter with the milk solids strained off)
1 tsp. black mustard seeds
8 curry leaves or 2 Tbs. fresh cilantro

1. Put the lentils in a a 3- or 4- quart deep pot. Add 1 c. water and whisk for a minute to crush some of the lentils.
2. Add the pureed tomatoes, cumin, coriander, cayenne, onion garlic, and salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook at a gentle boil, partially covered for 10 minutes.
3. Add the lemon juice and continue cooking for 1 minute.
4. Turn off the heat and keep covered while you make the spice-perfumed butter.
5. Heat the ghee in a small frying pan until very hot.
6. Add the mustard seeds and the curry leaves.
7. Shake the pan. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, turn off the heat.
8. Pour the entire contents of the pan into the soup and stir well.
9. Serve and enjoy!