News You Can Bruise for 2005 October 21

Fri Oct 21 2005 20:11 PST: I got a fancy Ruby gem set up on RubyForge, so now you can just gem install rubyful_soup and start screen-scraping the Rubyful Soup way. No dependency worries or anything. Plus, while I was figuring out how Ruby gems work, I wrote about five gem-related recipes for the Cookbook. I lauv zis cauntry!

(3) Fri Oct 21 2005 21:02 PST Sumana's Mother's Sambar: I was a sous-chef for this operation so I don't precisely remember how you make it. This is my best guess.

1.5 cups toor dahl (ie. yellow lentils)
Turmeric
1 package fresh green beans, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 small potatoes or 1 big potato, diced (I would add more potato, personally).
3-4 tomatoes, diced

Cook the dahl in water and turmeric in a pot. Add the vegetables and cook some more. (Throughout this adventure, add more water whenever neccessary.) Meanwhile, scrape out:

1/2 of the flesh of a coconut

I scooped it out with a melon baller. Save half of it for the raitha. The other half goes into the blender and gets chopped into coconut flakes. Then to the blender add:

5 stalks cilantro
Sambar powder. here's a recipe. Sumana's mother gave me a bag of it; probably you can buy it at a local Indian store.
1/2 stick cinnamon
A little water

Blend into a paste. Scrape into the dahl and stir. Now the sambar is basically ready and just needs to cook some more. While it cooks make the raitha. To the leftover coconut add:

1 cucumber, peeled and grated
1 serrano chile, diced
1 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tomato, diced

Stir to combine. Finish the sambar with about a tablespoon of brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of salt. Finish the raitha with 3/4 teaspoon of salt. Serve with rice.

I like putting the raitha on top of the sambar as a sauce. Sumana thinks this is really weird. But I used to put ranch dressing on top of pizza, and this is an analagous situation. To me, it is Sumana's habit of eating the raitha completely separately that is weird.