Tomatto Rasam

Ingredients:
Tomatoes - 2
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander leaves - a few
Green chillies - 2
Garlic - 2 cloves
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

For the tempering
Ghee/Oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Hing/Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Dried red chillies - 2
Curry leaves few
Black peppercorns - around 10 in number
Salt to taste

Directions
Grind the pepper corns, garlic,green chillies, curry leaves and jeera into a course mixture. Alternatively you could pound this to a coarse paste using a pestle and mortar.

Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water for about five minutes and peel the skin. Run the tomatoes in the mixer/blender to get a thick tomato mixture. Add the hot water used for blanching the tomatoes, turmeric powder and salt to this tomato mixture.

Do the tempering using all the ingredients listed. Once the mustard and jeera start spluttering, add the coarse ground dry mixture and fry for a minute. Take care it does not burn.

Bring the tomato mixture back to the stove and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat as soon as it boils. Pour the tempering over it and mix well. Adjust salt and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with some hot rice!

Chicken Noodles

Ingredients :

2 packets of noodles.

1 cup of shredded chicken.

4-6 cups of water.

1-2 tablespoon of refined groundnut oil/extra virgin olive oil.

1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce.

1 teaspoon of light soy sauce.

1 teaspoon of Chinese rice wine/sherry.

1 -2 teaspoon of sugar.

Sea salt to taste or you can also use regular salt.

Half teaspoon of Chinese five spice powder ( an inch of cinnamon, 1 star anise, 1 teaspoon each fennel seeds, shichuan pepper and cloves. Dry roast everything and grind it into a fine powder).

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic.

1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger.

1 finely sliced white onion.

Half cup of finely sliced bell pepper/capsicum.

Half cup of finely slice carrots.

Half cup of finely sliced lettuce/cabbage.

Half cup of bean sprouts.

Half cup of finely chopped spring onion.

Just a handful of coarsely chopped Choy sum ( Bok choy ).

2-3 tablespoons of roughly chopped cilantro.

Directions :

1. Heat the water in a pot to it's boiling point. Add a pinch of sea salt and 1 tsp. of cooking oil to it.

2. Boil the  Noodles in the given quantity of water for 2-3 minutes and quickly discard the hot water. Hold the noodles under cold tap water to stop the cooking process and allow them to cool; This process will help us to get non-sticky noodles. Do not overcook the noodles.

3. Now heat up the groundnut oil in a wok on a high flame. Add the chopped garlic and ginger and quickly saute it. Do not allow the garlic and ginger  to change it's  color . Be careful while you saute  it as the high flame will tend to burn the garlic and will give an intense flavor which will spoil the dish.

4.Add the finely sliced onions, bell pepper, lettuce, carrots and stir fry everything for 2-3 minutes till all the vegetables become crunchy. Do not add any extra water , we need all the vegetables half-cooked.

5. Now add the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, rice wine, five spice powder, sugar and a pinch of sea salt to the above vegetables and mix everything well for few minutes. Be very careful with the amount of salt as the soy sauce has a lot of salt in it. It will be wise that you taste the dish and then add the salt if required.

3. Lastly, add the cooked noodles, shredded chicken to the above mixture and stir it lightly to prevent  breaking of the noodles. Turn off the flame.

4. Garnish the noodles with chopped spring onions, choy sum , bean sprouts and cilantro ; give it a quick stir and  the noodles are ready to serve.

5. This whole recipe requires less than 15 minutes , all you need is a proper preparation. Always keep all the ingredients ready before you cook . As this recipe requires high flame be careful that you cook everything with a great speed.

This is one of the most healthy and delicious Noodles Recipes. Make sure that you use all fresh ingredients and low sodium soy sauce to increase the nutritive values of the dish. You can also use extra virgin olive oil instead of groundnut oil.