Added: 05/22/2006 |
Cool Raitas - One Taste is all it Takes!Since most salads have vegetables and other ingredients in their raw form, all the essential nutrients are preserved. Raitas is a purely Indian version of a "side-dish" which doubles up also as a salad. Raitas are often used along with Rice or Rotis and also served during festivals, being an essential part of any wedding.
Raitas is a South Asian condiment based on yogurt or kefir, usually made by the housewife in the kitchen. The yogurt is seasoned with cilantro, cumin, mint, cayenne pepper, and other herbs and spices. Vegetables such as cucumber and onions are mixed in raitas, with powdered mustard as a key ingredient in raitas. In fact, the name raitas comes from the Hindi word for mustard - rai.
It could be considered similar to the Greek tzatziki. Initially, cucumber was not included in authentic versions of the raitas, because Ayurvedic tradition considers a mixture of cucumber and yoghurt to be harmful to the body, now we see that all those troubles were groundless.
Raitas usually served chilled, having a cooling effect on the palate, which makes it a good foil for spicy Indian dishes. Southern Indian cuisine, such as that found in the Bangalore region, often uses finely chopped or diced carrots mixed with dahi yogurt. This curd dish, which is a must with every meal in scorching, sweltering summers of India. Here is a tasty and interesting salad recipe that can be prepared daily. Well, you can start with preparing this delicious Indian salad called Baingan Raita.
First, bake one large eggplant in oven or in frying pan with lid. You should not use any oil for baking. If the eggplant is too big, you can cut the top that it can fully enter into pan. In any case, the eggplant should be baked until the inside becomes soft. You can peel it gently and carefully, not to remove too much of inside with skin. Then, cut the eggplant on little pieces because it should melt with curd cream. Why not add onion on tiny slices and squash one piece of garlic for some spice? Then cut green chili, canned or fresh in half.
Put some oil into pan and add onion, garlic and half of the chilli. Fry it until the onion softens and gets a little color, but not much. For making cream from curd more reasonable to use mixer, but you can also do the same with fork in bowl. While curd is in mixer, add eggplant pieces to the frying onion and chili. This will ensure that all the ingredients get a hot, spicy taste from the chili. Add salt, Kefir or Yogurt, and a little water, this ensures the curd will become more syrupy. Adding vinegar to the raitas gives it a more sour taste.
Put the curd to serving bowl, throw out half of the green chilli and add it to the curd and the still baking and hot eggplant with the onions. If you like more hot taste, you can add little chili powder. Mix raitas (rasam) finely, and serve with main meal. This Eggplant raitas is usually eaten with rice and some vegetables. This mixes well with other meals that include potatoes.
Well, raitas are much more tasty if fill it with more ingredients, even mixing fruit and vegetables (banana, tomatoes). Besides, you can also add some original seasonings, but be careful. However, take care, as many of them possess a specific scent or taste, like black salt, for example. It is better not to use this salt in the process of cooking raitas - it will smell like rotten eggs!
So think twice before doing it, because nothing happens if you go a bit outside of the beaten path while cooking raitas. The spice you can freely add to raitas is chat masala - the addition will be for benefit.
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