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.
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.
Ingredient and Process of Cooking
Pure Water – 1 padi
Pepper – ½ palam
Pigeon Pea – 1 palam
Black Gram – ¼ palam
Red Chilli – palam
Grated Coconut – 1½ palam
Salt – ½ palam
Milk – ¼ padi
Curry Leaves – 1 palam
Ghee – ½ palam
Cumin Seed – ¼ palam
1. Fry pepper pods, pigeon pea, black gram, red chillies and grated coconut separately in ghee. Sprinkle water and grind it to a fine paste.
2. Mix this well in 1 padi pure water. Boil this mixture by adding salt. Fry curry leaves in slow fire and add it to the rasam.
3. Heat ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds to it. When the seeds are fried well, add it to the rasam.
References
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