Being married to a South Indian gave me a chance to try many South Indian recipes and Rasam is one of those. To be very honest there were very few South Indian recipes that I was aware of and those were Idli, Dosa, vada and sambhar. I used to wonder how they can have only these recipes everyday. 🙂
Since I was fond of masala dosa, whenever I would visit any restaurant, I would order masala dosa. I never got a chance to try anything else. Since I was born and brought up in North India and because South Indian food for North Indians is restricted to only dosa’s, idli’s and vada’s I never came across anything else in any of the so called South Indian restaurants in North India.
Very often my Mother-in-Law would make rasam in different styles. This is the first time I prepared Rasam on my own.
Actually my hubby was suffering from severe cold since 2 days and he had sinus problem. So he happened to read somewhere on the internet that he should drink something which is very spicy like soup or rasam. I started surfing the internet for spicy rasam recipes and came across one of this recipe. I have tweaked this recipe to my requirement and that is how I came up with this recipe.
Ingredients :-
- Seedless Tamarind – 1/2 tbsp, (soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water)
- Tomato – 1 (finely chopped)
- Coriander leaves – 2 -3 tbsp (finely chopped)
- Water – 1 1/2 cup or as per required
- Salt – as per the taste
To Grind :-
- Garlic – 7-8 cloves
- Pepper/kali mirch – 1/2 tbsp
- Dry red chillies – 3
- Jeera/cumin – 1/2 tbsp
To Temper :-
- Mustard seeds/sarson – 1 tsp
- Curry leaves/kadi patta – 8-10
- Turmeric powder – 2 to 3 pinches
- Asafoetida/hing – a pinch
- Oil – 1 tbsp
Method :-
Ingredients
- 1/2 tbsp Seedless Tamarind soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water
- 1 No Tomato Finely Chopped
- 3 tbsp Coriander leaves Finely Chopped
- 1.5 Cup Water or, as required
- Salt To Tastes
To Grind
- 8 Cloves Garlic
- 1/2 tbsp Pepper (Kali Mirch)
- 3 No Dry red chillies
- 1/2 tbsp Cumin Seeds (Jeera)
To Temper
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds (Sarson)
- 10 No Curry Leaves
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/4 tsp Asafoetida (Hing)
- 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
Instructions
- Soak tamarind in warm water for about 15-20 minutes.
- Squeeze the soaked tamarind to get the pulp.
- Strain the tamarind pulp and set aside.
- Now grind garlic, red chilies, black pepper and cumin seeds coarsely and set aside.
- Heat oil in a pan.
- Add mustard seeds, when the seeds starts crackle add curry leaves, turmeric powder and asafoetida.
- Saute for a minute and then add chopped coriander leaves and the ground mixture.
- Saute for few minutes and then add chopped tomatoes and salt.
- Stir and saute for 3 - 4 minutes again.
- Then add tamarind pulp and water as per the requirement and mix well.
- Let the rasam simmer on a low flame.
- Let it simmer for about 15 minutes uncovered or until tomatoes gets mushy and the raw taste of tamarind goes properly.
- Serve the spicy pepper rasam hot, along with plain rice, sambar and with some side dish.
- It can be served as a beverage as well.
Notes
If you find that the spice is less then you can add more pepper powder.
If you want you can add powdered pepper as well.(I prefer using freshly crushed pepper as it gives a good aroma and taste)
Do not boil rasam for long time. Just bring it to boil.
If you want you can crush 2-3 garlic pods with skin and add it to the rasam at last as it gives a nice flavor to rasam.
It tastes great when it is hot.
Nutrition
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