ONE more way to beat the heat is with this cooling Tomato Salad. According to Ayurveda, Tomatoes are one of the foods that have a cooling effect on the human body; a food highly recommended in one’s summer diet. Lettuce leaves are another cooling vegetable. Milk and milk products, including cream, are also cooling foods. Fresh herbs are used and no heat producing spices or herbs are used. So when one combines all these, well, what better way to beat the heat but the way of a Tomato Salad!

The Chinese say that cooling foods have a way of ridding the body of heat and toxins. It calms the blood and enhances the Yin in the body. Cooling foods eliminate or at least reduce irritating summer problems of excess perspiration and thirst, gastric discomforts like flatulence, constipation, pungent and odorous wind.

This is an old recipe from the times when flavours were not so complex with complicated ad mixes of spices, sauces and plethora of ingredients; its superiority lies in the simplicity of its purity of taste.  It is only on the palate that the flavours mix to enhance the refined experience

RECIPE: Serves One.

INGREDIENTS:

1 bunch lettuce (alternately you may use iceberg lettuce but the taste changes completely);

1 large tomato per person;

1 teaspoon of Whipped Cream per slice of tomato;

1 tablespoon of roughly chopped olives (black preferred);

2 tablespoons of finely chopped chives;

2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley (try fresh coriander or cilantro for a change);

½ finely chopped medium sized onion (about 1 ½ inch in diameter), preferably pink or red (red/pink onions bring greater zest to the salad and contrast well with the juicy sweet-sour of the tomato);

¼ teaspoon honey.

METHOD:

Wash and dry lettuce leaves,

Halve each leaf and spread these in a dish.

Slice the tomatoes about 3 mm in thickness (half an index finger width),

Place a slice of tomato on each piece of lettuce.

In a mixing bowl:

Put the whipped cream, chopped olives, chopped chives, chopped parsley and chopped onions,

Mix well.

Now, place some mixture on each tomato slice.

To finish place a small drop of honey on the mixture.

If you prefer to eliminate the sweet taste of honey, replace it with a few grains of freshly ground pepper. I DO NOT RECOMMEND ELIMINATION OF HONEY. The surprise of the slight sweetness adds a twist of urbanity and chic to the otherwise forthright taste of the salad.

The Raw Mango Curry or ‘Kairi ni Curry’ is a seasonal dish. It is a sweet and sour curry made completely without chilles though spicy. The spiciness comes from the cloves, black pepper, cardamom and cinnamon.

The Parsi Zoroastrians of India celebrate the mango season! They look forward to adding raw or ripe mangoes to various dals, lentil stews, beans, sprouts, meat and vegetable stews. So, Ambakalyo, Bafaenu, Kairi Ni Daar, and Kanda Kairi Nu Gosh and of course, the Raw Mango Curry or ‘Kairi Ni Curry’ is something to which they all look forward.

The Raw Mango Curry uses no Chili, whether green or red, and no coconut or other nuts to thicken the gravy. The gravy thickens because of the amount of onions used. On its completion, the Raw Mango Curry comes out sweet sour and spicy

At the time when this recipe was written down there was either use of wood stoves or of a Primus Stove, sometime Around The 1920 it was obviously at the time considered a great delicacy and the cooking time required was over 3 hours

The mango pieces required about 20 minutes to cook and then another hour to make the mango syrup

the meat took an hour or more then after adding the first few ingredients it had to be cooked for a further 12 minutes and then, again for a further 20 minutes

And after adding the gravy cook uncovered for another 12 minutes

We’ve come a long way from that especially if one uses a pressure cooker. Do try the curry it sounds delicious the saffron is optional but would certainly enhance the flavours if used.

Ingredients:

500 Gms meat of a young male goat or meat of your choice (no fowl. For that you need different spices);

250 Gms ghee/cooking medium of choice;

500 Gms onions;

250 Gms peeled raw green mangoes;

1 tablespoon of sugar;

20 Gms large black currants;

1 inch piece of peeled ginger;

10 Gms (one fistful) leaves of fresh coriander;

10 cloves powdered,

½ teaspoon turmeric powder;

10 balls of black pepper

10 pieces of green or white cardamom (white strongly recommended. Parsis use the white in all their cooking.)

2 inch stick of cinnamon;

1 pinch Saffron strands or ¼ teaspoon saffron powder;

2 tablespoons lemon juice;

10 gms salt or as per taste.

PREPARATION:

Deseed the currants and cut into rough pieces (buy the largest currants you can find).  Put aside.

Cut the coriander leaves fine and grind to a paste. Reserve for later use.

Retain whole, the seeds of one cardamom and put aside.

Grind very fine: the peeled ginger, turmeric powder, rest of the cardamom seeds, powdered cloves, cinnamon and saffron.

Cut the meat into small pieces,

Hand wash in room temperature water, just once and put aside for later use.

METHOD:

Cut the mangoes to bite size pieces,                

Boil the raw mango pieces in a little water,

Cook till soft and well cooked,

Retain the water from boiling, if any;

Divide the mango pieces into two equal portions,

Drain one potion,

Retain the second portion with any water that may have remained after boiling;

Mash the drained portion of mango, with the back of a spoon, in to a fine paste;

Put the mashed mango aside, preferably in a crockery vessel.

Take the remaining portion of the mango pieces with any water that may have remained,

Add more water to cover the mangoes in 250 ml of water,

Heat,

Add the sugar and the lime juice,

Boil to made a one-string syrup (it is interesting to know that the original recipe, which was cooked on a wood stove, recommends a full hour of further boiling),

Once the syrup forms, take the mangoes off the stove,

With the back of a spoon mash the mango pieces into the syrup to make a paste of the syrup and mango.

Grate the onions,

Heat 200 grams ghee,

Fry onions until evenly brown,

Stirring occasionally to prevent onions burning at the bottom of the vessel,

Add the meat to the brown onions and fry till all the meat pieces change colour and begin to brown on all sides ,

Add all the ground coriander leaves,

Add salt to taste,

Fry for a further minute or two,

Add 900 ml of water let the meat cook till tender and edible (recipe on wood stove speaks of two hours or more, if required),

Add water if needed so as to ensure that there is about 200 ml of gravy left after cooking.

Remove the gravy from the pot and place aside for later use.

Add all the remaining ghee to the to the meat,

Further add the ground ginger and spices; and mix well,

Fry the spices and the meat together for another 2 to 4 minutes,

Add a few cardamom seeds, the mango pastes (the sweet and unsweetened), and the currants to the meat,

Cook for another few minutes for the meat to absorb the flavours of the spices.

Pour into the meat, all the gravy that was put aside and cook uncovered for another few minutes.

Serve with long grained white rice boiled with salt and a couple of cloves.

Serve a salad made of onions, tomatoes and cucumbers dressed in lime juice and salt (Cachumber).