Mutton Shorba

Shorba is one of the various kinds of soup or stew found in national cuisines across Central Asia and the Middle East. In South Asia, the term shorba simply means gravy. Shorba is derived from the Arabic word 'Shurbah', meaning soup.

Mutton shorba is a very popular soup in the Middle East and islamic countries. This recipe was brought to India during Afghan & Mughals rule. It makes a very healthy recipe and is highly popular during Ramzan season because it is believed and proven than there will not be any indigestion or acidity problems, if you break your fast with shorba.
Typically, Mutton Shorba is served with a Lebanese bread called Kaboos. However, here in Hyderabad, people generally have it with Indian bread of roti and they enjoy dunking pieces of bread and eating it. This dish can be found all across Hyderabad in various Irani cafes. 

Everyone has their own way to prepare mutton shorba as this is a very common during Ramzan season  I got to taste it at my friend's place during one of the Ramzan seasons when I was in Bangalore. Most common recipes is where mutton bones are cooked and flavored with spices to create and absolute aromatic and tasty shorba. However, a little change in the recipe brings a great essence in the taste.  

Cooking Time:  60 mins                                                                                     Servings: 5

Preparation Time: 10 mins                                                                                Category: Soups, Non-Veg

Mutton Shorba

Here's the recipe:-

Ingredients
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Mutton ribs - 200 grams
Cloves- 5 
Cinnamon stick- 1 inch 
Onion- 1 (finely chopped) 
Ginger garlic paste- 2tbsp 
Pepper power- 1tbsp 
Cumin powder- 1tsp 
Red chilli powder- 1tsp 
Oil- 2tbsp 
Salt- as per taste 
Coriander leaves- 1/2 cup (finely chopped)
Mint leaves - 1/4 cup (finely chopped) 
Lemon- 2 slices



Preparation Method
----------------------

• Boil mutton in 4 glass of water on low flame in a vessel along with ginger garlic paste and a pinch of turmeric. 
• When meat on the ribs becomes tender, turn the flame off. By this time the water should become half it's original size in the vessel. 
• Peel off the meat from the ribs and throw the bones away. 
• Heat oil in another pan and add finely onions finely chopped. 
• Fry them on medium flame onion till they get caramalized.
• Now add pepper, cumin and red chilli powders along with salt, crushed cloves & cinnamon and chopped mint and coriander leaves.
• Let it simmer for 5 minutes. To this mixture, add the meat and its stock. Let it come to a boil
• Turn off the stove when the the shorba comes to a soup consistency.
• Server hot directly or with Indian bread.

Tomato Rasam (My style)

Cooking Time: 45 mins                                                   Servings: 6
Preparation Time: 20 mins                                             Category: Indian Soups, Veg


Rasam or Saaru, is a famous south Indian soup, traditionally prepared using tamarind juice as a base, with the addition of tomato, and chili pepper, pepper, cumin and other spices as seasonings. Steamed lentils are added along with any preferred vegetables. Nowadays all the seasonings required are combined and ground beforehand into a rasam powder, which is available commercially.
It is eaten with rice or separately as soup. In a traditional meal, it is preceded by a sambar rice course and is followed by curd rice. Rasam has a distinct taste in comparison to the sambar due to its own seasoning ingredients and is usually fluid in consistency.

There are different kinds of rasam, varying by ingredient and region. Some of the common varieties are 

Thakkali Rasam - with tomato puree as main ingredient.
Poondu Rasam - a healthy rasam made with Garlic.
Inji Rasam - a healthy rasam made with Ginger.
Mudakathan Rasam - a healthy green leaf rasam made with Balloon Vine.
Lemon Rasam - a sour soup made with lemon juice.
Parupu Rasam  - common variant made with pulses and tomato stock.
Kollu Rasam or Ulava Saaru - a healthy rasam made with horse-gram.
Mysore Rasam - a fragrant soup made with fried grams/dals.

The recipe am sharing now is a mix of thakkali, poondu and parupu rasam with tamarind juice as base in my own style. So here it goes:-

Ingredients:

--------------

Tomatoes - 4

Tomato Rasam

Toor dal - 1 cup

Hing/Asafoedtida  - 1/2 tsp

Sliced Onions (optional) - 1

Tamarind pulp/paste - 2 to 3 Tbsps

Crushed Black Pepper corns - 8 to 10

Salt - per taste

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Jeera powder - 1 tsp

Slit green chillies - 4

Curry leaves - 6-8 

MTR rasam powder - 2 Tbsp

Ghee - 1 Tbsp

Crushed garlic cloves - 6

Water - as required and per consistency

Preparation Method:

-----------------------

• Pressure cook tomatoes and dal in separate vessels in a cooker. Once done, peel off the skin of tomatoes, mash them to a pulp and keep it aside along with the dal.
• Heat ghee in vessel and add crushed pepper corns, crushed garlic and saute them for couple of mins
• Now add sliced oninons, green chillies, curry leaves, hing and saute them too for another couple of mins.
• Add tomatoes, dal, turmeric powder and simmer them for 10 mins.
• Now add jeera, chilli powder, salt and mix it well and cook for 5 mins.
• Add tamarind pulp/paste and let the dish come to a boil. Now simmer the stove and add water as required.
• When this comes to a boil, add the MTR rasam powder and let it boil for 15 mins. Turn of the stove and serve hot with plain rice, idly etc

PS: Before turning the stove off, you can add another tsp of ghee and garnish it with finely chopped coriander. If dal is not being used, increase the count of tomatoes as required.

If you don't want to use ready made MTR rasam powder, you can prepare it at home too. Here is the recipe for the same:-

Ingredients

--------------

Coriander seeds - 1 cup 

Red chillies - 12 

Split black gram dal - 2 tbsps 

Cumin seeds - 2 tbsps 

Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsps 

Mustard seeds - 2 tsps 

Sesame seeds - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

Preparation

--------------

• Dry roast mustard fenugreek seeds on low flame and when they start to  splutter remove them on to a dry plate. 
• Similarly roast cumin seeds till you get a pleasant aroma and remove it into the same plate. 
• Heat oil in the same pan and add coriander seeds, black gram dal and red chillies. 
• Roast them together till the ingredients emanate a pleasant aroma and the chillies become crisp. 
• Remove the roasted ingredients on to a plate and allow to cool. 
• Grind them together into a slightly coarse powder and store in an air tight container 

Dalcha Hyderabadi

Cooking Time: 15-20 mins                                    Servings: 5

Preparation Time: 15-20 mins           Category: Veg
 

Hyderabadi cuisine is prominent since the Nizams. We hyderabadi's are large repertoire of spices, rice, wheat and meat food dishes. The Hyderabadi Biryani and Hyderabadi Haleem, with a blend of Mughalai and Arabic cuisine had become some of the iconic dishes of India. Hyderabadi cuisine is highly influenced by Mughals and partially by French, Arabic, Turkish and Irani food along with the influence of native Telugu and Marathwada cuisines where rice, wheat, spices and meat are widely used to great effect bringing in a unique taste to the Hyderabadi dishes. The other popular unique native food dishes include Nahari, Kulche, Chakna, Baghara baingan and in desserts Qubani ka meetha, Double ka meetha and Kaddu Ki Kheer (a sweet porridge made with sweet bottle gourd). 
In this post I am going to share one of the popular household dish recipe in Hyderabadi cuisine i.e Dalcha. It is also known as Kaddu ka Dalcha and is mostly prepared with chana dal, tamarind paste, mutton (optional). I have not used mutton here.
Toor dal can also be used but I would strongly recommend chana dal as it packs the powerful punch to your taste buds which toor dal doesn't do. What Sambar is to Chennai similarly dalcha is to Hyderabad. So, here goes the recipe:-

Dalcha

Ingredients
-------------

Kaddu or bottle gourd - 250 gms
Tamarind paste - 100 gms
Chana dal - 250 gms
Onions - 2, sliced
Tomato - 1, finely chopped
Mint/Pudina and coriander - 50 gms each, finely chopped
Green chillies - 5, sliced
Ginger garlic paste - 50 gms
Garam Masala - 1 tsp
Ghee or refined oil - 3 table spoons.
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 4 tsps
Salt - to taste

**You can either use only ghee/oil or mix them both. But again I recommend ghee for that perfect taste. If you don't want to use ghee then go for refined oil and add 2 tsp of ghee on top of the dish before serving it hot.

Preparation

--------------

• Peel the skin off bottle gourd and cut it into small rectangular pieces (2 inches each). We do not want the seeds, so remove them too.
• Wash chana dal properly and soak it in water for about 5 mins. Drain out the water and take the dal into a pressure cooker.
• Add equal amout of water and cook it for 2-3 whistles and turn off the stove. Keep it aside.
• Take a vessel and add ghee/oil to it. Once it is heated, add bottle gourd pieces and cook them for 2 mins.
• Now add onions and chillies to it and cook it until the onions turn golden brown.
• Add ginger garlic paste, turmeric, chilli powder, salt, coriander powder, 1/2 tsp of garam masala, coriander and pudina.
• Mix it well and let it simmer for 10 mins so that all the flavor of the spices is absorbed by bottle gourd.
• Add the tamarind paste, 2 cups of water and bring the dish to a boil. All the aroma it releases will be heavenly.
• Now add the cooked dal to it and stir it well until it absorbs everything and becomes semi-liquid. Cook it until it starts boiling.
• Add 2 small cups of water again and simmer it until the bottle gourd pieces are cooked completely.
• When it is done, add the remaining garam masala and turn of the stove. If you want it spicy, another 1 tsp of the same can be added.
• Garnish it with a tsp of ghee, finely chopped coriander leaves and server hot with steamed rice or Hyderabadi Bagara rice or Jeera rice etc.

***My next post will be Hyderabadi Bagara Rice.***