Soul Food: Rasam and Potato Curry

This is the macaroni and cheese of the South Indian cuisine. Comforting, simple, and easy to make. Rasam is a soupy liquid made primarily with a tamarind base with tomatoes, spices and lots of cilantro. Potato curry--well, need I say more? Add white rice, and you're set. My kids always request this for their homecoming meal (my daughter will ask for more kozhambu, to be posted later) -- every single time.

Rasam - Ingredients:
Tamarind pulp - 1 small lump, soaked in hot water for about 30 minutes.  If you're using concentrate, about a teaspoon dissolved in about 1.5 cups of water. I must warn you though, that the color and the taste of the rasam when you use the concentrate are not very appealing.
Tomatoes - 1 medium ripe, or a handful of cherry tomatoes
Rasam powder - 1 tsp (recipe follows)
Cilantro - to garnish, chopped fine
Salt - 1 to 2 tsps - to taste
Garlic pods - 5 - 6 or more if you like lots of garlic
Oil / ghee to temper - 1 tablespoon

Rasam powder:
Quick rasam powder:
Take a few sprigs of curry leaves, a tsp of black whole pepper, a tsp of cumin seeds, 2 red dried chillies, 1 pod of garlic from the above, and grind them up coarsely in a blender or coffee grinder (the one you reserve for spices - do not use it for actual coffee beans, unless you want spicy garlicky coffee).

Method:

1. Heat oil/ghee in the container in which you're going to make rasam. Do not let it get smoking hot.
2. Optional tempering: If you have mustard seeds, add them and let them pop, and add a few cumin seeds and black pepper.  The tempering in Indian cooking basically indicates what spices are used in the dish. If you don't want to, skip to the next step.
3. Add the garlic pods not used in the powder and saute them lightly. Take care to not burn them. They burn very quickly.
4. Add the tamarind juice, chopped tomatoes, salt, and the rasam powder and boil for a few minutes. It should boil to a froth, at the most for about 10 minutes.
5. Add cilantro.

You're done.

What good is a steaming bowl of tomato rasam without its mate, the one and only potato curry?
This is probably the first dish that any south Indian worth his/her salt would learn to cook.

Ingredients: - this quantity would serve about 3 people
Medium sized potatoes - 8 - boiled/steamed to fork tender, cubed
Salt - 1 - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp or more if you like it hot
Turmeric powder - a pinch - optional - adds a lovely hue
Hing/aseofetida - a pinch - you can find this in any Indian grocery store, and it adds a nice fragrance
Tempering - mustard seeds, curry leaves
Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Take a wok or a non-stick pan, not too shallow.
2. Heat the oil.
3. Optional: Temper with mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves.
4. Add the potatoes, salt, chilli powder and turmeric. Reduce the heat to medium, and gently toss the potatoes to coat with the spices.
5. Keep turning once in a while with a spatula, taking care not to smash the pieces, to evenly cook on all sides.

Potatoes should be ready in about 15 minutes and should look like this.

Enjoy with a hot steaming bowl of white or brown rice!