Tomato rasam

Rasam is one of the important and easiest dishes made in South Indian daily menu.Even though you have a number of yummy dishes on the menu no one would skip a tasty rasam.Now a days they have even started serving Rasam like a soup or appetizer in Restaurants.Rasam is made with Tamarind water,tomatoes and with a combination of spices like cumin and Pepper.The cumin and the pepper helps in healing cold and cough, espcially in winters.
Rasam is combined with hot mashed rice and a dash of pure ghee and served like a porridge.Toddlers and old people have rasam rice because it is light and easily digestible.

We make so many different types of Rasam in our house like                                                     Paruppu ,Pepper,Jeera,Poondu,Pineapple Vepam poo etc but the most common are tomato and paruppu rasam which is made every other day.I love (everyone would love this)the rasam rice my mother used to make and feed me when I am sick.

Garlic Rasam/Poondu Rasam

                                                            Garlic rasam is one of my favourite rasam.My mother used to make it once a week especially on Sundays when everyone is at home more for its medicinal values.
It helps in digestion,cough cold etc.sometimes she just used to add some boiled garlic to the normal paruppu rasam.My aunt(athai) is a specialist in making this  Garlic rasam.She used to make it with two other spices "kandathippili" and "Arisithippili".She used to make it really spicy and mix it with some mashed rice and ghee and make us drink in our empty stomach so that we feel really hungry for  sunday feast!!!!!

Lemon Rasam

                                                           We South Indians especially Tamils make so many different kinds of "Rasam".Most of them are Tamarind based with Pepper and Cumin in it.Lemon Rasam is made with Dhal water and Lime juice for the sour taste.The Spice of green chillies and the ginger makes it more different than the usual rasam.
This is my husbands favourite rasam but unfortunatley my kids do not like it.I usually make it on those days i make milagau kozhambu or vathkozhambu so that i avoid tamarind in the rasam and include some dhal.

KANDATHIPILLI RASAM

                                                                 This is one more rare type of rasam in the sense it is not made regularly.You can even call it a medicinal rasam.It is made in south Indian homes when you have body ache,sore throat and a common cold.In this rasam we fry two different types of herbs Kandathipilli and Arisithipili along with pepper and red chillies and boil in tamarind water.

You will Need

• Big marble sized ball of Tamarind
• 3/4tsp of Black Pepper
• 2-4 Red chillies
• One tbs of Channa Dal
• One tsp of Coriander seeds
• One tsp of Cumin seeds
• Few Curry leaves
• Four sticks of Kandathippilli
• Four sticks of Arisithippilli
• Two cups of Tur Dal water
• Salt to Taste
• Ghee for tempering

How To

1. Soak Tamarind in hot water for half an hour and extract juice three times and keep aside.
2. In a pan heat a tsp of ghee and roast pepper,chillies,coriander seeds and two thippilllis.
3. Cool the roasted ingredients and grind it along with cumin seeds and curry leaves in to a smooth paste or powder.
4. In a pan heat ghee again and crackle mustard seeds and add tamarind water.
5. When the raw smell of the tamarind goes add the ground paste and salt.
6. Add some Dal water to subside the spice in the rasam.

Variation

• You can make this with garlic also.When you crackle mustard seeds add peeled garlic and fry.
• Allow it to boil along with tamarind water and later add the ground paste.
• In this case you may not add Dal water.You can use one tomato if you like.
• I did use otherwise it would become too medicinal.

Vepampoo Rasam/Dried Neem Flower Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind	Marble sized ball
Red chillies	8nos
Ghee	1tbs
Mustard seeds	1tsp
Asafoetida	1/4tsp
Curry leaves	few
Salt	2-3tsp
Dried neem flowers	1tsp-11/2tsp
Jaggery powder	1/2tsp

Method
1.Soak Tamarind in hot water and extract watery pulp three times.
2.Slightly Roast about 6 red chillies and put it in the tamarind water.
3.Heat the tamarind water with salt,asafoetida and curry leaves.
4.Once the raw smell of the tamarind goes add some plain or dal water.
5.Temper mustard seeds,neem flowers and two chillies in ghee and add.
6.Add jaggery and close it.Have it with hot rice after half an hour.

Paruppu Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind	Lemon size
Tomatoes	2
Rasam Powder	1tsp
Salt	11/2tsp
Tur dal	1/3cup
Curry Leaves	few
Coriander Leaves	2tbs
Asafoetida	A pinch

To Temper

Ghee	1tsp
Mustard seeds	1tsp
Cumin seeds	1/2tsp
Red chillies	2

Method
1.Pressure cool the dal with extra water.(boil the dal).Soak Tamarind in hot water.
2.Extract Tamarind juice three times from the soaked Tamarind.
3.Boil the tamarind water with salt,rasam powder,asafoetida and cut tomatoes.
4.Mash up the dal and add some water to it.
5.Add the dal water to the boiling tamarind water and temper it.
6.Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Suggestions

• If you make it in the traditional vessel called the "eeiya chombu" it tastes great.
• Mash up some hot rice and pour in some rasam and ghee it taste heavenly.

Mysore Rasam

INGREDIENTS

Tamarind	Small lemon size
Tur dal	1/2cup
Tomatoes	2
Channa dal	1tsp
Coriander seeds	11/2tsp
Red chillies	4
Pepper	10
Turmeric powder	1/2tps
Salt	2-3tsp
Ghee	1tbs
Mustard seeds	1tsp
Curry leaves	1string
Coriander leaves	1tbs

METHOD
1.Soak tamarind in hot water for an hour and extract juice three times.
2.Pressure cook the tur dal with little extra water.
3.Roast the Channa dal,coriander seeds,red chillies in a drop of ghee and powder it along with pepper.
4.Boil the tamarind water with cut tomatoes,turmeric powder and salt.
5.Add the ground powder,dal and the extra water and boil for two more minutes.
6.Season with mustard seeds in ghee and garnish with coriander and curry leaves.

NOTES

• There is one more type of Mysore rasam in which you roast some scraped coconut and powder along with coriander seeds,Channa dal,red chillies and pepper.

Jeera rasam

Required

• Tur dhal   1tbs
• Cumin seeds1   tbs
• Red chillies    4
• Curry leaves  few

soak all this in water for one hour and grind into a smooth paste.

Tamarind      marble sized ball
tomato          1

Method

1.soak tamrind in hot water and extract water 3 times.
 boil the tamarind water with salt and tomato .

2.add the ground paste and 2 glasses of water and bring it to boil.

3.season with mustard seeds and serve with rice and ghee.

soup rasam

                                        This is my aunt's recipe and all our favourite too!!!It is so rich in colour and a good appetizer more than a Rasam.Whenever she makes kalanda sadam she makes this rasam and have it as a soup!!!
Ingredients

• Ripe tomatoes            4nos
• Peppercorns              1tsp
• Cumin seeds              1tsp
• Tamarind  juice or lemon juice    2tbs
• Green chili              1
• Curry leaves             few
• Coriander leaves     1tbs

Seasoning

• Ghee
• Mustard seeds

Method

1. Boil the tomatoes in water,cool and puree it.
2. Roast pepper and cumin in ghee and powder it.
3. Add some tamarind juice or lemon juice to the puree.
4. Boil and add salt and green chili.
5. Season with mustard seeds in ghee.
6. Garnish with coriander and curry leaves.
7. It is called soup rasam because it looks like tomato soup.

milagu rasam(with garlic)

Ingrdients

• Tamarind   marble sized ball
• pepper   1tbs
• Turdhal    1tbs
• Red chillies  3
• Curry leaves  few
• Garlic     20 pods
• Ghee
• Mustard seeds
• Salt

Method
1.Soak tamarind in hot water for an hour and extract watery juice 3 times.
2.Roast pepper,turdhal,red chillies,and curry leaves in little ghee and powder it.
3.Boil the tamarind water with garlic and salt and when the garlic is cooked add the powder and add some more water and season it with mustard seeds in ghee.

Suggestions
Mash up some hot rice with this rasam and ghee it tastes heavenly especially when you have fever.
You can make it without garlic too.

Pineapple Rasam

                                Pineapple rasam is one of our favourite rasam.I have not heard anyone making it at home often or regularly as often as they make paruppu rasam or tomato rasam.I remeber tasting it in some weddings.Right from then i fell in love with it.My mom used to make it when we have some special guests and everyone used to drink it in cups and enjoy!

                      Later when i started cooking i learnt  to make on my own and started to make it and slowly my daughters also got a taste for it and now it has become our favourite.The sweetness and the tangy flavour of pineapple is what is special about it.

You can either cut it into blocks and add it or if you really like the pineapple flavour like we do you can make a puree of pineapple in the blender and add it to the rasam.It need not boil and cook.