Sev Tameta - (Tomato & Chickpea flour fritters)

Slacker? Procrastinator? Absent-Minded? What would you brand a person who posts this tantalizing teaser almost two years ago... but doesn't realize that the post providing answers to her puzzle is safely tucked away as a draft in her blogger dashboard? Well, here is the pheonix you all would have never expected to rise out of its ashes - the much awaited, the much guessed about, the minimalist wonder, the sensational - Sev Tameta!!

If you were actually waiting for this post all this time, please accept my heartfelt apologies for imposing this excruciating suspense!Without further ado, here's how you make Sev Tameta
Simple foods... that are simple enough to cook without planning give you inexplicable joy. That's what happened to us during our Lake George trip. We packed a bunch of spicy Indian snacks including the Indian Sev and Gathia. These snacks are made of a spicy chick pea flour dough, pressed out of sev/gathia presses similar to Murukku presses (cookie press) and deep fried. The stuff we carried of course, were store brought.

So we packed these snacks for tea time munchies. As we got used to cooking at the well equipped kitchen at the resort, we realized we had all the ingredients for this famous Gujarati dish - Sev Tameta, which is one of Hubbie's favorites. So we decided to be happy campers and leverage our limited supplies towards lunch.

You can use any kind of sev, gathia or even crisp puris (as used in papdi chaats)... We used a mixture of the kinds we had... Bhavnagri Gathia (Speciality of a region in Gujarat called Bhavnagar) and Spicy Sev pictured below

Sev Tameta
2-3 tbsp oil 1 tsp mustard seeds pinch asafetida 1 tsp tumeric powder 1 tsp coriander powder	Heat oil, add mustard seeds. Allow to sputter, then add asafetida, turmeric powder and coriander pow
1 tomato chopped fine salt to taste splash of water (if required)	Add tomatoes and salt and cook down until the mixture is pulpy. If the tomato is not juicy enough, add a splash of water
2 cups assorted sev/gathias	Add to mixture and mix. Turn off heat and allow to soak until the sev is tender

You can add more water to this dish if you prefer it watery. The soaking time for the sev depends of its thickness. Serve this with chappatis or theplas. Yum!

Tomatoes are to Pasta what Peas are to Carrots

Pasta and Pomodoro go together like peas and carrots (a la Forrest Gump). The sweet tang together with the chewy goodness of pasta is often a quick meal. Most pasta sauces are so forgiving that you can use canned diced or crushed tomatoes. Leftover sauces can be creatively used in any Indian gravy recipes inplace of tomatoes or tomato puree.

I remember seeing this recipe on a TV cooking show long back, I don't remember which one. Reconstructing by memory, here is Pasta with Three Tomatoes (fresh, canned and sun dried)

Pasta With Three Tomatoes
1 lb spaghetti Plenty of water salt to taste	Bring plenty of well salted water to a boil and cook spaghetti according to package directions, until al dente
2 tbsp tomato olive oil (from oil packed sun dried tomatoes) 2 tbsp minced garlic 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes	Heat oil in a saucepan. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and cook for 30 seconds
1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes 1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes 2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes halved	Add crushed tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes, cook down for 15 mins. Then, add the halved cherry tomatoes and simmer until the cherry tomato just turns soft. Drain spaghetti, add to the sauce. Add some retained pasta water to dilute sauce if desired. Top with grated Parmesan cheese (optional).

Each tomato sauce recipe has its signature - play with herbs, add a dash of vodka or wine or in this case, work with different flavors of the tomato. If you don't like the sour taste of sun dried tomatoes, you can reduce the amount used in the recipe.

This is an entry to ARF/5-a-day at Sweetnicks.

Spring Time Rice aka Tomato Rice

You know it is the end of winter when you see produce like this at the market!

But what to do with these tomatoes for a weekday meal? Something that would do justice to these beauties... Answer Tomato Rice. Another recipe from Hemant Trivedi. Don't frown at the long list of ingredients -- it's simple to put together and really tomatillicious. If not for taste, you can eat it for health reasons, Lycopene found in tomatoes, is one of the most sought after antioxidants. On that note, I would like to submit this to the weekly healthful ARF event hosted by Cate .

Tomato Rice
1 cup long grained Rice 1/4 cup peas 1/4 cup carrots, chopped 2 tsp salt	Cook rice with salt, until grains are separate. Drop in the peas and carrots during the cooking process
1 tbsp oil 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp cumin seeds 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped	Heat oil in a wide pan. Add seeds, when they start to sputter, add tomatoes and stir fry till oil separates
1 red onion, cubed 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 inch ginger, grated	Add onion and cook till soft. Then add garlic and ginger, cook for 3-4 minutes
1 tsp garam masala salt to taste 2 tsp chilli powder 1 tsp turmeric powder 1/4 tsp pepper powder 4-5 curry leaves	Add the dry spices and curry leaves and cook for 2-3 mins. The tomato mixture must be pulpy by now. Take off heat.
1 tsp oil 4-5 cloves 2 inch cinnamon stick	For tempering, heat oil add cloves and cinnamon. When the cloves puff up, add to the tomato mixture. Add cooked rice and vegetables to the tomato mixture and mix well. Serve with yogurt or raita

Check out Sweetnicks place to see a round up of other healthy ARF entries.