My grandmother's applause is tomato-coconut soup is ready in just 15 minutes

One of my favorite meal meals is the soothing tomato cocon broth that my grandmother cooked for me when I visited her in Maharashtra, at home, on the west coast of India. It is known as Saar in India, which means “soup” in marathi. But my grandmother always called it “Santosh”, which in Sanskritul means “satisfaction”. I always thought this name fits well: creamy coconut milk, coupled with sweet tubular tomatoes and makes ghee a velvety soup, which is really very satisfied.

As a professional chef, I have cooked my grandmother's tomato-coconut soup many years. For the first time in 2007, my first catering concert was at the Christmas party of my ex-husband, where I served as the first course of dinner. It was so well received that everyone applauded when we roasted my grandmother, who was 8700 miles in India.

A few years later, I put the soup on the first pop-up restaurant menu. One of the guests enjoyed it so much that he called me a few months later to take care of his family's Christmas dinner and asked for my grandmother's juice. I cooked my family's Christmas dinner for years and asked this tomato-koconut soup every year in the menu.

Modernization of my grandmother tomato-co-cococonut soup recipe

Cooking the recipe as my grandmother did – cooking, peeling and sowing fresh tomatoes, and making fresh coconut milk from scratch – was not practical for the hospitality of large parties in my California kitchen. So over the years, I have made adjustments to my recipe, namely, instead of canning tomatoes and coconut milk, to make this simple, single -pack recipe that I share below.

With these two changes, the soup is not only easier to make, but at any time of the year, even if fresh tomatoes are not within the season. Over the years, many brands of canned tomatoes have been used in the soup, I think the real Italian San Marzano Paradise works best, their consistent sweets and taste (beware that not all canned tomatoes, the label on the label “San Marzano” is actually the real). Remember to remove basil leaves from the box before using tomato.

As for the type of coconut milk, I experimented with whole fat and low-fat coconut creams and milk, and I find that full-fat coconut milk has the best taste and viscosity of this food; Coconut cream is too rich and low -fat milk is too thin.

Another difference between my grandmother's soup and mine version is the type of onion used. My grandmother always used an Indian onion that is smaller and sweeter than American white, red and yellow onions. The best replacement is peanut onions. They are about the same size and have a comparable Allium -aroma with the onion that my grandmother would use when making this soup in India.

After the peanut onions are softened, the chile powder is added to the mixture and tense tomato mixture, followed by coconut milk. When adding the coconut milk, be careful not to boil the soup. This eliminates all the risks of coconut milk separating fats and coconut oil pools.

The final Santosh is not as taste as a usual American tomato soup. It has a light and silky, balanced flavor, which is improved by ginger, peanut onions and chile powder. In Maharashtra, the soup is often mixed with white rice, or bits with chapati or other frying bread, and in my opinion, it is sure to be satisfied with each bite.

Cooking method
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