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
Pure Water – 3 padi
Roasted Horsegram – ½ padi
Gingelly Oil or Ghee – ¾ palam
Turmeric Powder – ¼ palam
Red Chillies – ½ palam
Pepper -¼ palam
Coriander Seeds – ½ palam
Cumin Seeds – ? palam
Fenugreek Seeds – veesam 1/16 palam
Mustard Seeds – veesam 1/16 palam
Grated Coconut – 2 ½ palam
Pure Water – ½ padi
Tamarind – 2 ¾ palam
Salt – 1¾ palam
Curry Leaves – 2 palam
Coriander Leaves – ? palam
Ghee or Gingelly Oil – 1¼ palam
Red Chillies – ¼ palam
Mustard Seeds – ? palam
Bengal Gram – ? palam
Asafoetida – 2 ku.a
Method
1. Boil water in a 5 padi capacity water holding vessel. Add roasted horse gram, gingely oil or ghee and turmeric powder into this water one by one. Cover it with a vessel filled with water.
2. Fry red chillies, pepper pods, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, asafetida and mustard in ghee or oil separately. Fry grated coconut and add this to the above ingredients and grind it to a fine paste by sprinkling ¼ padi water to it.
3. Dissolve tamarind in pure water and remove the seeds of the tamarind. Add salt to the boiling tamarind. Add curry leaves and coriander leaves.
4. After the rasam is boiled and the water is reduced, mash the cooked horse gram and pour the dal into the rasam.
5. Take 4 or 5 ladleful of the rasam when it boils well. Heat ghee or oil and add red chillies, mustard and bengal gram. Refer to the recipe no 22 (seasoning recipe) for seasoning method and season the dish.
6. Add asafoetida after dissolving in water to the rasam.
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