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Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Pomegranate Cucumber Raita



Raita is a great dish to serve to accompany a Fiery Curry. Usually, The Lovely Wife makes the Raita and she just uses shredded cucumber and yoghurt with maybe a few spices. This time, she chose to jazz it up. This post actually completes (finally!) the menu that we served for lunch when my dear friend, Naomi, came to visit many months ago.

I really dont know how The Lovely Wife hit upon the idea of using pomegranade for Raita but I have to say it gives the Raita a lovely flavour as well as added colour. Sometimes she adds raisins to the raita but I think pomegranade is so much nicer! My little princess loves anything with Yoghurt in it and she loves nothing better than Rice with Raita, so this was certainly a favourite with her.

It would be kind of difficult to give you a recipe for Raita simply because a lot depends on your taste. Some people like it really yoghurty while some prefer it with just a dash of yoghurt and more cucumber. Bear in mind too that the cucumber lets out water while it sits with the yoghurt so the mixture can get a little runny too. That, to me, just adds to the beauty of this dish.



Anyway, what The Lovely Wife did with this creation was to cut up the cucumber into tiny chunks rather than shredding it like she normally does. Then she added in some yoghurt, seasoned it with a little salt and pepper and added in pomegranate and some mint leaves. As easy as pie! Except that this is Raita and not Pie... get with the program, please... :)



So! As I mentioned earlier, this post completes the meal that we served for lunch and this was the menu:

Pomegranate and Cucumber Raita
Spicy Pork Patties
Murgh Masala or Fiery Chicken Curry
Sambar
Kangkung Belacan
all served with Rice of course.
and for dessert Double Chocolate Mousse Cake
Quite a lovely lunch, even if I do say so myself!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's very pretty, and I can imagine how great it tastes! Good to experiment.

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

This rounds out the meal nicely Dharm. You and the Lovely Wife make a good team:D

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

this is Raita and not Pie... get with the program, please... :) Oh you can rest assured I am with this program Dharm! That looks like the best Raita ever. I love pomegranate first because it always adds such jazzy color beauty but then it adds that pow of beautiful taste.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Dharm: re the 5 spice

The package I have from Penzey's list ingredients: China cassia cinnamon, star anise, anise seed, ginger and cloves.

Sour, bitter, sweet, pungent & salty: don't know about that but my overall impression is sweetness that is unrelated to a sugar sweet - I realize that makes no sense at all but it's the best I can do with words.

Ivy said...

It looks beautiful and I can imagine how tasteful this would be.

giz said...

Most intriguing - I don't think I've ever even seen anything quite like that. I like everything in it - what could be bad?

luckysanjana said...

Hi Dharm I hopped over to your space from Mirch masala......this space is full of visual delights.........I love what your wife did to the raita......honestly the addition of red gives the dish an entirely new look , a better look........where i live pomegranates are easy to find........so im gonna try this for sure...........again brilliant idea.........i always think that food has to first appease the senses then the palate.

Anonymous said...

what a great idea! i bet it was delicious.

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

I just came upon this and had to leave a comment 'cos I love pomegranate in my raita, especially with a spicy pulao.