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
Cumin Seed – ½ palam
Pepper – palam
Red Chilli – palam
Coriander Seed – ¼ palam
Salt – ½ palam
Tamarind – ¾ palam
Ghee – ½ palam
Fenugreek Seed – palam
Cumin Seed – palam
1. Pour pure water in a 1 and ½ padi water holding capacity lead coated vessel. Soak cumin seeds in 1/8 padi water.
2. Fry pepper pods, red chillies and coriander seeds, separately in ghee.Then grind it with the soaked cumin seeds using the same water.
3. Mix this with the 1 padi water kept aside. Boil this with salt. Dissolve the tamarind in water, remove the seeds and pour this into the rasam.
4. Use the seasoning method in recipe no. 22 to season the rasam. Add ghee, fenugreek and cumin seeds for seasoning.
References
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