Another rasam from the South Indian tradition. This rasam is a much more flavorful variety of the simple rasam that lends itself to many many avatars. I don't know why it's called Mysore rasam, Mysore being a city in Karnataka. This recipe is based on Meenakshi Ammal's recipe. Meenakshi Ammal was someone in my grandmother's generation who wrote a series of cook books called "Samaithu Paar" (Cook and See), detailed vegetarian recipes that wasn't just limited to a Tambrahm kitchen. She was far ahead of her times, and wrote these cook books for the newly wed women in her family. I love her recipes and completely relied on the 3 volumes of her recipes in the early days of our marriage, when I was in the US, and phone calls to India were expensive. I still refer to them from time to time. This is one from her collection of rasam varieties.
Don't be intimidated by the long list of ingredients, it's really a cinch once you gather all of them and follow the steps.
| Prep Time | 10 mins |
| Cook Time | 15 mins |
| Servings |
cups
|
Ingredients
- 1 lime sized ball tamarind soaked in warm water for about 30 minutes
- 2 medium Tomatoes
- 1/2 cup Cooked, mashed toor dhal
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 sprig Curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
To Roast And Grind Into A Paste
- 1 tbsp chana dhal (Bengal gram)
- 1 tbsp Coriander seeds
- 4 red chilies
- 6-8 Black pepper corns
- 2 tbsp fresh/frozen grated coconut
- 1 sprig Curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp ghee/oil to roast the spices
To Season
- 1 tsp ghee/oil
- 1 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp Hing
Garnish
- 1 cup cilantro leaves
Ingredients
To Roast And Grind Into A Paste
To Season
Garnish
|
|
Instructions
- Soak the tamarind (puli) in two cups of warm water, and extract the juice; gather the spices to roast and grind
- Add two more cups of water, chopped tomatoes, salt, curry leaves, turmeric and set it to boil
- While it's boiling, heat the ghee/oil mentioned in "To Roast And Grind" in small kadai/vaanali. When it's hot, add the spices starting with the chana dhal, followed by the coriander, curry leaves and chilies. When they're toasted to a nice reddish aromatic brown, add the coconut and fry everything together until the coconut is also toasted to a golden brown
- When the spices are cool enough, blend with a little bit of water to a fine paste
- After the tamarind boils for about 10 minutes, add the blended spice paste and let it boil for a few minutes
- Now mash the cooked dhal, and add some water to it if needed and add to the boiling rasam
- The rasam will get nice and frothy once you add the dhal water, in a couple of minutes. Add the cilantro at this point, and take it off the heat
- Heat the seasoning oil/ghee and when hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin and pepper and pour over the rasam
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