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.

Ingredient and Process of Cooking

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.

Following ingredients are required for making Rasam Powder :

  • Red Chillies – 20 palam
  • Coriander Seed – 12 palam
  • Cumin Seed – 1 palam
  • Fenugreek Seed – ½ palam
  • Pepper – 4 palam

1. Remove the stem of the red chillies, add 1 spoon of gingelly oil and fry it until reddish black.

2. Transfer it to a tray. Fry the rest of the ingredients separately without oil, powder it and mix it together.

3. Grind the chillies to a powder and mix it with the rest of the powder. Store it in an airtight container so that the aroma does not escape.

4. These ground powders can also be stored separately, to use as per requirement for separate rasam recipes. For some recipes certain powder is used more than the other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasam

References

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