RASAM (INDIAN SOUP)

A small intro about Rasam.

Rasam is a popular soup in South India. It is had with rice and some fried curry. In Restaurants it is served as Mulligatawny Soup. You must be familiar with this name if you visit restaurants often and if you like spicy soups. The name is actually derived from Tamil which is spoken in Tamil Nadu a state in South India and where I belong to. Mulligatawny is mulaguthanni . mulagu is wholepeppercorn and thanni is water which means pepper water. Rasam is supposed to be very good for health as it contains lot of spices like wholepepper, corianderseeds, cuminseeds, which are very good for stomach and stomach disorders. In North India Rasam is very popular in restaurants people have it in glass with papad.You can know more about rasam here. There are many ways of making rasam but I’m going to give the traditional recipe for making Rasam which is normally made at our home. First you need to make Rasam powder.

POTATO CURRY (FRY)
Ingredients for making Rasam powder(serves3-4)
Coriander seeds - 1Tbsp
Cumin Seed - ¼ Tbsp
Yellow lentils - 1/4Tbsp
Whole black pepper corns - 1/2Tbsp
Asaefotida powder - a pinch
Whole Red Chillies – 2
Put all the ingredients in a small jar of mixer and powder it coarsely. It can also be dry roasted for few minutes till it gives a nice aroma and then can be powdered. But should be careful while roasting . It should not get burnt. You can get informations about lentils here
TAMARIND

Ingredients for making Rasam
Tomatoes medium sized - 2
Tamarind - size of small gooseberry. Soak it in ½ cup of water before 30 mins ( you can avoid tamarind and can squezz juice of a lemon and add at the last)
Garlic - 4-5 pods (crushed)
Turmeric powder - ¼ Tsp
Coriander Leaves - a small bunch (chopped finely)


Ingredients for tempering
Ghee - 1Tsp
Mustard seeds- ½ Tsp
Curry leaves - a sprig
Whole red chilly- 1
Tempering:
Take a small pan add ghee to it and when it becomes hot add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds starts spluttering add curry leaves and whole red chilly and switch off the stove.

METHOD:
Take a pan and add a glass of water and bring it to boil. When the water boils add the mashed tomatoes, turmeric powder and let it cook for 5-8 minutes. 2. Now squeeze the tamarind soaked in water and filter the water once and add it to the cooked tomatoes and again bring to a boil. 3. Add another 2-3 cups of hot water to it to make it watery let it boil for 10-12 minutes on a medium flame. 4. Now add the Rasam powder and crushed garlic to the boiling rasam and let it boil for another 5 minutes till it gives a nice aroma. 6. Now add salt as per taste and switch off the stove. Add the tempering to it and garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with rice and fried potatoes or have it hot as soup in a bowl.

If you are using lemon instead of tamarind skip the step 2 and add the juice of a lemon switching off the flame.

Try this recipe and tell me how it turned out. If you know any recipe similar to this let me know and also let me know about your thoughts in the form of comments :)