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.
Kalavamparuppu : Mixture of ¼ padi of roasted horse gram, ? padi of pigeon pea, veesam padi green gram and veesam padi bengal gram or butter beans.
Fundamental Concepts and Principles
Pure Water – 3 ½ padi
Kalavamparuppu – ½ padi
Ghee or Oil – ½ palam
Turmeric Powder – veesam 1/16 palam
Tamarind – 3 ¾ palam
Salt – 2 ½ palam
Roasted Red Chilli Powder – ? palam
Roasted Coriander Powder – ? palam
Roasted Pepper Powder – ¼ palam
Roasted Fenugreek Powder – veesam 1/16 palam
Roasted Mustard Powder – veesam 1/16 palam
Roasted Cumin Powder – ? palam
Curry Leaves – 1 palam
Coriander Leaves – ? palam
Ghee – ½ palam
Red Chillies – ¼ palam
Mustard Seeds – ? palam
Asafoetida – 2 ku.a
Method
1. Pour pure water in a pot that can hold 5 padi water and add ghee or oil, turmeric powder and kalavam paruppu and heat the water. Close the pot with another pot filled with water.
2. Remove from fire after the dal is cooked well. Dissolve tamarind in 2 and ½ padi water and remove the seeds of the tamarind. Add salt to it.
3. Add roasted red chilli powder, roasted coriander powder, fried pepper powder, roasted fenugreek powder, roasted mustard powder and roasted cumin seed powder to the tamarind pulp.
4. You can also add 1 and ¾ palam rasam powder also instead of all these powders. Curry leaves can be fried in slow fire and added to the rasam.
5. Wash and cut the roots of coriander leaves and add it to the rasam. After the rasam thickens, add the cooked dal to it. Add enough water to the rasam so that it is vessel full.
6. Take 3 or 4 ladleful of the rasam and pour it into another vessel. When the rasam boils well, refer to the seasoning method in recipe no. 22 (seasoning recipe) and use ghee, red chillies and mustard seeds to it.
7. Remove from fire and add asafoetida dissolved in water.
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