Rasam

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.

Ingredients

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.

Mango Vathal Rasam (mango fryums)

Ingredients :

Pure Water – 1½ padi

Mango Vathal – 2 palam

Roasted Red Chill Powder – veesam 1/16 palam

Roasted Pepper Powder – ¼ palam

Salt – ½ palam

Black Gram – ½ palam

Grated Coconut – 1 palam

Ghee – ½ palam

Red Chilli – ⅛ palam

Mustard Seed – ⅛ palam

Black Gram – ¼ palam

Bengal Gram – ¼ palam

Asafoetida – 2 ku.a

Method :

1. Boil water in a lead coated vessel that can hold 2 ½ padi water. Select good mango fryums and put it into boiling water and close it with another vessel filled with water.

2. Fry red chillies with little oil and fry the pepper without oil and powder both. Put this in the mango fryums. Fry black gram in oil and grind it along with the grated coconut.

3. Refer to recipe no. 22 method for seasoning. Use ghee, red chillies, mustard, black gram and bengal gram. Pour it into the rasam and remove from the fire.

4. Dissolve asafoetida in water and pour the water into the rasam.