Sea bass and turmeric potatoes in rasam broth

Tamarind is one of our favourite ingredients. Its taste is hard to describe – it has a sweet-sour flavour that adds a completely distinct tartness to sauces, soups, marinades, pasted and dressings. Here, its tartness is a key part of the rasam soup which is often served in South Indian cooking to balance the heat of other dishes. Rasam translates as “essence”. The soup can be made in many ways – with varying contributions from tomato, pepper, lemon, cumin, chilli and tamarind water – but the result will always be food that comforts and restores. Our version is a meal in itself, somewhere between a hearty soup and a fish dish with a sauce.