Scope
South Indian meals, particularly lunch, is never complete without some tangy, sour, digestives such as the moru (curd) rice and another soupy dish called rasam. Rasam means “juice”. Rasam commonly refers to soup prepared with sweet-sour stock made from either kokum or tamarind, along with tomato and lentil, added spices and garnish. The Karnataka and Andhra varieties are called saaru in Kannada and chaaru in Telugu, respectively. The spices used include chili pepper, black pepper, cumin etc.
It is eaten with rice or separately as a spicy soup and can be consumed hot or cold. Rasam has a distinct taste in comparison to the sambar due to its own seasoning ingredients. Given its usage as a regular dish in daily meals, Rasam Powder is prepared and stored in airtight containers beforehand.
Fundamental Concepts and Principles
Rasam is prepared mainly with kokum, kadampuli/kachampuli (malabar tamarind) or tamarind stock depending on the region, along with tomato stock. Lentils are optional but are used in several rasams recipes. Other ingredients used are jaggery, garlic, cumin, black pepper, chilli powder, turmeric, curry leaves, coriander as flavoring ingredients and garnish.
The below series covers pretty much the whole gamut of rasams one can savour in South Indian households.
Fundamental Concepts and Principles
Water – 4 padi
Bengal Gram – ½ padi
Ghee – ¼ palam
Salt – 1 palam
Turmeric Powder – ? palam
Red Chillies – ? palam
Coriander Seeds – ? palam
Pepper – veesam 3/16 palam
Fenugreek – ? palam
Cumin Seeds – ? palam
Water – ½ padi
Tamarind – 3 palam
Asafoetida – 2 ku.a
Curry Leaves – 1 palam
Coriander Leaves – ? palam
Ghee – ½ palam
Mustard Seed – ? palam
Method
1. Take the water in a vessel that can hold 5 padi water and boil it.
2. Add bengal gram, ghee and turmeric to the boiling water one by one. Close it with another vessel filled with water.
3. When the lentils are cooked well, remove from fire. Fry separately in ghee or oil, red chillies, coriander seeds, pepper, cumin seeds and asafoetida and grind it to a smooth paste.
7. Boil ½ padi water in a vessel that can hold 2 and ½ padi water and which is lead coated. Add tamarind to this water. Remove the seeds from the tamarind and extract the tamarind juice and boil it. Add the ground mixture to this tamarind water.
8. Add salt to the tamarind. Fry curry leaves and add it in the tamarind water. Wash coriander leaves in water, remove the stems and put it in the tamarind water.
9. When the tamarind water becomes 1/4th amount, pour the water from the cooked dal into the tamarind water. If the vessel is not filled, add some more water to the dal, mash well and add it to the dal. Remove 4 or 5 ladle full of lentil and keep it in another lead coated vessel.
When the rasam is fully boiled and comes up add this lentil to the rasam. By doing this, the rasam will not leak out of the vessel. Then add ghee to a pan and follow the method given in recipe no. 22 (seasoning recipe) for seasoning. Dissolve asafoetida in little water and add the juice to the rasam.
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