I cooked with it, including this delicious herbed butter (with cayenne, mustard, horseradish, and salt and pepper) that went into the soup bowls before the soup. The soup. The SOUP! Stupendous! Miraculous! I could eat it all day every day. It had a pleasant heat, with pepper, ginger, cumin, and two hot peppers (one red, one yellow). Lots of tomatoes, an apple, some cream, a rue. Yamuna notes that the Bengali recipe has clear European influences. I assume that's the rue. Whatever, the flavor was unique and wonderful. The only problem was that the half and half separated. I hate that. Didn't affect the flavor, of course, but I wouldn't want to serve it that way to guests.
I couldn't find "cassia leaves" for the soup anywhere. The internet says they are also called tejpat. Anyway, I went to the Indian grocery (Vishnu India Imports). The lady looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for cassia leaves. I said they were like bay leaves and she sold me some bay leaves. The package spells them "bey leaves" and they are imported, so maybe they are cassia/tejpat leaves. The internet also says they are called "Indian bay leaves," although they are not related to bay ("laurel" in Spanish). Maybe I'll check the Middle Eastern/Mexican grocery downtown the next time I'm there.
To go with the soup, I made a salad. Cucumber, ginger, split mung dal, and lemons. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. Not like the soup. I also made some frozen dhosa. I didn't have cash when I went to Vishnu, and there was a minimum charge for credit cards. So I got some frozen dhosa and a mango. I'll have the mango later. The frozen dhosa were nice.
OMG! I made butter. I don't think I'll ever buy butter again!
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