South Indian Rasam
By: Malathy
Published: Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - 10:45pm

Ingredients




2 mediums tomatoes
2 nos green chilli 
1 tablespoon Tamarind paste or 1 lime-sized tamarind
3 sprigs Cilantro
6 Curry leaves
1/2 tablespoon Cumin Seed
1/2 tablespoon Black Pepper
3 cloves Garlic cloves
2 nos Red chillies 
1/4 tablespoon turmeric powder
300 mls water
Salt, to taste 
2 tablespoons Oil
1/4 tablespoon Mustard
Hing/Asafoedita
2 ounces Toor dal (optional)

Preparation

1 Grind Pepper, Cumin seed, garlic, and 1 red chilli to a coarse powder without adding water. 2 In 300 ml of water, add 2 tbsp of tamarind paste, salt to taste, turmeric powder, prepared rasam powder, and smashed tomatoes. Cut green chilli into two halves with fingers and add this to the mixture. Stir. 3 Add oil in the pan; once the oil is heated add mustard and red chilli and heat until the mustard splutters. 4 Add hing powder, curry leaf and Raw rasam mixture. Allow this to boil till you see white bubbles, then remove from heat and garnish with cilantro 5 For - Dal Rasam: Boil the dal; add the dal last

About


Rasam, (Tamil: Rasam; Kannada: Saaru; Telugu: Chaaru;Malayalam: Rasam; Tulu:Resa; Sourashtra:Pulichaar) is a South Indian soup. It is prepared with tamarind juice or tomato, pepper and other spices.
It is eaten with rice or alone, as a soup. In a traditional meal, it follows the sambar course and is followed by curd rice. It differs from sambar in that it usually relies on tomatoes for its sourness rather than tamarind, and it is usually much more fluid.