Tomato Rasam

The king of all rasams. Imagine the clear water floating on top which when savoured gives a tangy, sour spicy flavour that pleases every sense of yours. Eat it with rice and pappad or drink it as a soup. It teases your taste buds. Here is the step by step procedure and ingredients needed to prepare this delicious form of food.

Ingredients

Two tomatoes chopped into four pieces.

Turmeric powder

hing or asafoetida

2 slit green chillies

1 small lemon size tamarind soaked in hot water

salt to taste

1 teaspoon full rasam powder (if not available take 1 tsp sambar powder and  add 1/4 tsp pepper powder and  1/4 tsp coriander powder)

1 tsp ghee

1/3 tsp mustard seeds

1/3 tsp jeera seeds

1 red chilly

1 cup water

a  handful of tur daal pressure cooked in 4 cups of water.

few sprigs of coriander leaves chopped

Method

1) Soak some tamarind in hot water. Let it stay so for a few minutes until the water is of room temperature and you are easily able to squeeze out tamarind water.

2) Take one cup of water. Add salt, turmeric powder, slit green chillies, asafoetida and chopped tomatoes. Squeeze the tamarind and add tamarind water to it.

3) Now add rasam powder, and once it starts boiling, reduce the flame to medium and cover it paritally. Wait for the quantity to turn into half.

4) Once the quantity reduces to half, add cooked toor dal along with toor daal water that was used for cooking. If it appears to be too thick, add one cup of cold water and simmer the flame to the lowest.

5) A lather like formation would form on the top of rasam, that means it is ready. Switch off the flame immediately. Never let it boil the second time else that would spoil the taste.

6) For seasoning, take one tsp ghee in a small vessel. Add mustard seeds and once it crackles add whole red chilly, cumin seeds and hing. Add the seasoning to the rasam alongwith chopped coriander  leaves. Serve hot.