Posts Tagged ‘Flavour’

There are many ways in which you can prepare the smabar powder.

Ingredients

Coriander seeds – 2 1/2 cups
Red Chillies – 4 cups
Thoor Dhal – 1/2 cup
Chenna Dhal – 1/2 cup
Methi Seeds – 1 hand full

Procedure

Fry all the ingredients one by one in a dry kadai till the raw flavour vanishes.
Allow it to cool and make into a smooth powder.
Store it a air tight container so the aroma will be retained.

BOMBAY CHUTNEY

Ingredients

Besan – 3 tsp
(Kadalai mavu)
Onion – 1 Nos
(finely chopped)
Tomato – 2 nos
Green chilies – 4 Nos (slit it length wise)
Oil – 2 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

For seasoning
mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
curry leaves – 10 to 15 nos
oil – 2 tsp

Procedure

-Mix the besan with 1 tumbler of water. Make it into a dilute batter.

-Apply oil in the pan and allow mustard & cumin’s seeds to splutter . Add finely chopped onion, tomato, curry leaves and the green chilies.along with turmeric powder. if needed add 1 ladle of water to cook the onion.

- Cook till the onion is soft and now add the besan batter and cook it for 5 minutes.

- The gravy will start thickening and will not stick to the pan . This is the consistency. Garnish it with finely chopped coriander.

You can also add 1/2 tsp lemon juice to increase the flavour and taste. This chutney goes well with chapati & poori . It is very easy to prepare. It will hardly take 10 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients

To Grind
Pure grated coconut – 1 cup
Fried gram (pottukadalai) – 1 Table spoon
green chillies – 2 Nos ( If you need little bit hot chutney increase the nos of chillies)

For seasoning
mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
broken urud dhal – 1 tsp
curry leaves – 10 to 15 nos
oil – 1 tsp

Procedure

- Season the mustard seed, urud dhal and the curry with oil.
- Fry the green chillies
- Now grind the coconut, fried gram and green chillies and make into a paste.
- Add the necessary quantity of water to dilute the paste and the seasoned things.
- Add a 1 pinch of perungayam and1/2 tsp lemon juice ( if you like then grind a small piece of tamarind. But adding lemon juice, we will get a new flavour).

Always add the seasoned things at the time of serving to retain the freshness.

You can make small changes to do different kind of chutneys

1 Coriander Chutney

The procedure is same as that of pure coconut chutney. While grinding you have to add finely chopped coriander.

2Pudhina Chutney

The only change you have to make is add pudhina (mint) leaves.

Remove the leaves form the stem. Wash it thoroughly. Apply some oil in the pan and saute the leaves for about 2 minutes.

Grind it with coconut, fried gram and green chilies.

Mint is full of iron . At least try to have it once a week. Seasoning and the other things remain the same.

3 Capsicum Chutney

The procedure is same as that of pudhina chutney. Instead of pudhina use capsicum.
Cut into small pieces and fry them in the kadai. You need not fry for a longer period. Just 2 minutes of cooking will do.

Omapodi  is another South Indian snacks, prepared using besan and rice flour.  We add omam or Ajvain to it to get a fine flavour.  Omam is very good  for health.  Try to include it in as many preparations as possible.

Ingrediants

Besan – 2 cups

Rice flour – 1 cup

Omam -15 gms (powdered)

Salt – 1  tsp ( to taste)

Asafoetida – 1/2 tsp

Butter or ghee – 1 tbl spoon

Oil – for deep frying

Procedure

-Mix besan , rice flour, omam powder,  asafoetida &  salt with  water and make it into a thick paste like  batter but a soft one.

-Heat the oil in the kadai.Test how hot it is by dropping a pinch of dough into it – if it sinks, the oil hasn’t become hot enough. If the dough springs to the top with bubbles all around it, then the oil is just ready.

-In your muruku press place the oma podi plate and load

the dough and press it directly into the hot oil. Fry it untill it is golden yellow and crispy.

Crispy omapodi  is ready. Allow it to cool and store it in an air tight container.

We can make little variations to make it taste different.

Along with omam powder add 1 tsp of  chilly powder and prepare the batter.

For the omapodi we add for mixture adding omam is optional.  We can add chilly powder alone to do kara omapodi.

The famous Unniappam is a very tasty delicious rice pudding of Kerala. Though it is done on many occasions, it is considered as a favourite dish which Unni kannan likes. So we can call this as a Janmashatami special. It is also done on the occasion of Karthikai , a Tamil Nadu festival which comes during the month of December. It is also called karthikai appam.

Ingredients

VARUTHU ARACHA KUZHAMBU is one of the delights of Nellai or Thirunelveli.

It can be taken along with raw rice and it is also one of the best side dishes for Ven Pongal.

Ingredients

Tamarind – 1 big lemon size

vegetables – 2 cups

In general we don’t use onion for this kuzhambu. The other vegetables used for this preparation are ash gourd (pooshanikai), parangikai or chakarai pooshinikai, carrot, plantain, ladies finger , colocasia (Sepan Kizhangu) etc.. Sepan Kizhangu has to be pressure cooked. The remaining vegetables can be precooked by adding salt.

To Fry and grind

Thoor Dhal, Chenna Dhal, Urud Dhal – 1 tsp each,Grated Coconut – 4 table spoon

Sesame or ellu – 1 table spoon,Raw rice -1 tsp, Red Chillies – 10 -12 Nos

For seasoning

mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – 10-15 nos
oil – 1 table spoon ( coconut oil is optional)

Procedure

-Stain the tamarind with 2 cups of water.

-Pre- cook the vegetables by adding salt and turmeric powder and when it is half cooked add the tamarind water to it and let it cook.

- In the mean time in a dry kadai first fry the sesame and rice till the fried flavour of sesame comes. Apply 1/2 tbl spoon oil to the pan and fry all the three dhals till they are golden brown along with the red chillies. Also fry the coconut in the same kadai without applying oil till it is golden brown.

-Allow the ingredients to cool and grind them into a smooth paste by adding required amount of water.

- Once all the vegetables are cooked add the paste and a small bit of jaggery. Mix them well and once the mixture starts to froth at sides turn the stove off.

-Season it with mustard seeds and fresh curry leaves with the remaining oil.

A very tasty varuthu aracha kuzhambu is ready. It is wholesome kuzhambu. Its preparation involves dhal and lots of vegetables.

Adding jaggery to any tamarind preparation will enhance its taste.

As I already told rasam is one of the delicious south Indian soups. Here I have explained the preparation of rasam, and small tips to make it all the more tasty.

Ordinary Dhal Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lime size
Tomato – big one
Rasam Powder – 1 tsp ti 1 1/2 tsp ( depending upon the strength of the rasam powder)
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 Tbs with its water
Asafoetida powder -1/2 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure

-Strain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of putting the tomato as pieces you grind the tomato and add the puree. This will enhance the color of the rasam.

-Add the rasam powder, turmeric powder and salt and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of the rasam powder vanishes

-Now smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Add coriander leaves, saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves add it to rasam. Finally, after the whole procedure is over add asafoetida and immediately close it at least for 10minutes so that the flavour is not lost.

Tasty yummy rasam is ready.

————————————————————————————-

Lime Rasam

Ingredients

Tomato – 2 big one
Rasam Powder – 1/2 tsp
Green Chilies – 2 Nos
Ginger – a small piece about 1″
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 Tbs with its water
Asafoetida powder -1/2 tsp
Lime – 1 in nos

Procedure

-Finely chop the tomatoes. Slit the green chilies longitudinally and chop the ginger into small pieces.

-Mix the chopped tomatoes, ginger, chillies rasam powder, turmeric powder and salt in 1 1/2 cups of water and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of the rasam powder vanishes.

-Now smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Add coriander leaves, saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

-Remove the rasam form the fire and then add the juice of one lime and serve.

-Lime should be added only after removing rasam form the fire. Lime juice will turn soar when cooked.

————————————————————————————-

Pineapple Rasam

Pine Apple Rasam Variety
Pineapple rasam is the delicacy of SouthIndia.

The procedure is same as that of doing lime rasam.

The only difference is you have to reduce the quantity of lime juice to half and add a cup full of chopped pineapple. You can also extract the juice of the pineapple and add to it.

After rasam is done , garnish it with ripe pineapples.

Orange Rasam

The same procedure can be followed in preparing orange rasam .
Add orange juice instead of pineapple juice.

————————————————————————————-

Mysore Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lemon size
Tomato – 1 big in size
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp along with water

To fry and grind

Coriander seeds – 2 tsp, Thoordhal – 1 tsp, ChennaDhal – 1 tsp, Red Chilies – 4 (or 6, if u need a spicy rasam)Nos, Black pepper – 1/2 tsp, Methi seeds- 1/4 tsp, Asafoetida -1/4 tsp. Roast the above in a spoon of ghee or oil. Add 1/2 tsp of jeera and Coconut – 1 Tbl spoon, grind it to a smoot powder.

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure

-Strain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of putting the tomato as pieces you grind the tomato and add the puree. This will enhance the color of the rasam.

-Add turmeric powder and salt and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of tamarind vanishes. Now add the powder you prepared.

-Smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Add coriander leaves, saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

Lime Mysore Rasam

Instead of adding the tamarind in the beginning add the lime juice at last, as you did for the lime rasam.

Brinjal Mysore Rasam

Slit the small brinjals into four without fully cutting them.

Cook the brinjal in tamarind water and repeat the same procedure.

————————————————————————————-

Pepper – Jeera Rasam

Already in my previous post I have explained to you about the preparation of pepper – jeera rasam powder. Always keep it handy.
This can be done with or with out tomatoes.

Ingredients

Tamarind – size of small lemon if you are using tomato
size of a big lime if tomato is not used.
Rasam Powder – 2 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 Tbs with its water

Procedure

Strain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of putting the tomato as pieces you grind the tomato and add the puree. This will enhance the color of the rasam.

-Add the rasam powder, salt and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of the rasam powder vanishes.

-Now smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

For this rasam asafoetida & coriander are not required. Instead just crush few fresh curry leaves with a pinch of salt and garnish the rasam.

————————————————————————————-

Poricha Rasam

This rasam is done without tamarind. But it is very tasty.

Ingredients

poricharasam variety
Tomato – 1 big in size
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp along with water

To fry and grind

Coriander seeds – 2 tsp, Thoordhal – 1 tsp, ChennaDhal – 1 tsp, Red Chilies – 2 Nos, Black pepper – 1/2 tsp, Asafoetida -1/4 tsp. Roast the above in a spoon of ghee or oil. Allow it to cool and grind the ingredients with 1 Tbl spoon of fresh coconut.

For Seasoning

Cumin’s seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure

-Grind the tomato and boil it just for 2 to3 minutes by adding little water, so that its raw flavour will vanish.

-Fry the things given above and make it into a paste. Mix the paste with the boiling tomatoes.

- Let it forth. Switch of the stove. This rasam need not be boiled for a very long time like other rasams because all the ingredients are already cooked.

-Saute cumin’s seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

- Garnish the rasam with chopped coriander and finely chopped ripped tomatoes.

————————————————————————————-

Garlic Rasam

This rasam can be prepared in 2 ways

I METHOD

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lemon size
Red Chillies- 2 nos
Black pepper – 1/2 tsp
Jeera- 1/2 tsp
Dhania – 1 tsp
Thoor Dhal -1 tsp
Chenna Dhal – 1 tsp
Garlic – 6 flakes

Procedure

-Fry all the above ingredients except tamarind till they are golden brown. While frying add garlic only when the dhal is golden brown in colour colour. Since garlic has water content if you add it first itself, it will get cooked faster and the remaining things will not get fried.

-After adding garlic you should fry till nice aroma comes.

- Grind all these into a smooth paste by adding sufficient water.

-Strain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Allow it to boil for about 5 minutes after adding salt to it.

-Add the ground mixture to the boiling rasam and again allow it to boil for about 2 minutes.

-If the rasam is strong dilute it with water. Saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

METHOD II

Garlic Rasam Variety
Prepare pepper – jeera rasam as I have explained above.

Saute mustard in ghee & add 10 flakes of garlic, roast it well and add it to rasam. Close the vessel.

As the garlic gets soaked in the rasam, it will give a rich flavour and taste.

————————————————————————————-

Gottu Rasam or Bachelor’s rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lime size
Tomato – big one
Rasam Powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Raw Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder -1/2 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure

- Cut tomato into small pieces. You don’t need cooked thoor dhal for this rasam.

-Add tamarind, tomato pieces rasam powder, turmeric powder, raw thoor dhal and salt and allow it to boil till the thoor dhal is cooked ( Killu padam i.e you must be able to break the cooked dhal in a single pinch).

- Add water and dilute the rasam to the required quantity.

-Add coriander leaves,saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves add it to rasam. Finally after the whole procedure is over add asafoetida and immediately close it atleast for 10minutes so that the flavour is not lost.

This is very simple but delicious rasam.
————————————————————————————-

Butter Milk Rasam

You can call it as emergency rasam. Can be done in two methods.

Method I

Ingredients

Butter Milk -2 cups
Red chillies – 4
Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp
ChennaDhal – 1 tsp
Dhaniya- 1 tsp
Methi seeds -1/4 tsp
Coconut -2 tsp
Trumeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida – 1/4 spoon

Procedure

- Fry Red chillies ,Thoor Dhal ,ChennaDhal ,Dhaniya and Methi seeds till the dhal is golden brown in colour

-Allow it to cool and make it into a fine paste by adding coconut and asafoetida.

- Mix it with the butter milk and add required amount of salt.

-Saute mustard along with curry leaves and 1 pinch of turmeric powder in 1 tsp of coconut oil (preferable) and add it to rasam. Garnish it with coriander leaves

Method II

Keep 2 cups of butter milk ready.

Add 2 tsp of coconut or cooking oil to the pan. Pre heat the oil.
Add mustard seeds and when it starts spluttering, add 2 tsp rasam powder, 1 pinch methi powder, 1 pinch turmeric powder, 1/4 asafoetida and finally curry leaves and add it to butter milk.
Garnish it with chopped coriander and 1 tsp of freshly grated coconut.

————————————————————————————-

As I already told rasam is one of the delicious south Indian soups. Here I have explained the preparation of rasam, and small tips to make it all the more tasty.

Ordinary Dhal Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lime size
Tomato – big one
Rasam Powder – 1 tsp ti 1 1/2 tsp ( depending upon the strength of the rasam powder)
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 Tbs with its water
Asafoetida powder -1/2 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure
-Stain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of putting the tomato as pieces you grind the tomato and add the puree. This will enhance the colour of the rasam.

-Add the rasam powder, turmeric powder and salt and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of the rasam powder vanishes

-Now smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Add coriander leaves, saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves add it to rasam. Finally, after the whole procedure is over add asafoetida and immediately close it at least for 10minutes so that the flavour is not lost.

Tasty yummy rasam is ready.

————————————————————————————————-
Lime Rasam

Ingredients

Tomato – 2 big one
Rasam Powder – 1/2 tsp
Green Chilies – 2 Nos
Ginger – a small piece about 1″
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 Tbs with its water
Asafoetida powder -1/2 tsp
Lime – 1 in nos

Procedure

-Finely chop the tomatoes. Slit the green chilies longitudinally and chop the ginger into small pieces.

-Mix the chopped tomatoes, ginger, chillies rasam powder, turmeric powder and salt in 1 1/2 cups of water and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of the rasam powder vanishes.

-Now smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Add coriander leaves, saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

-Remove the rasam form the fire and then add the juice of one lime and serve.

-Lime should be added only after removing rasam form the fire. Lime juice will turn soar when cooked.
————————————————————————————————-
Pineapple Rasam

Pineapple rasam is the delicasy of SouthIndia.

The procedure is same as that of doing lime rasam.

The only difference is you have to reduce the quantity of lime juice to half and add a cup full of chopped pineapple. You can also extract the juice of the pineapple and add to it.

After rasam is done , garnish it with ripe pineapples.

Orange Rasam

The same procedure can be followed in preparing orange rasam .
Add orange juice instead of pineapple juice.

————————————————————————————————-
Mysore Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lemon size
Tomato – 1 big in size
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp along with water

To fry and grind

Coriander seeds – 2 tsp, Thoordhal – 1 tsp, ChennaDhal – 1 tsp, Red Chilies – 4 (or 6, if u need a spicy rasam)Nos, Black pepper – 1/2 tsp, Methi seeds- 1/4 tsp, Asafoetida -1/4 tsp. Roast the above in a spoon of ghee or oil. Add 1/2 tsp of jeera and Coconut – 1 Tbl spoon, grind it to a smoot powder.

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure
Stain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of putting the tomato as pieces you grind the tomato and add the puree. This will enhance the colour of the rasam.

-Add turmeric powder and salt and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of tamarind vanishes. Now add the powder you prepared.

-Smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Add coriander leaves, saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

Lime Mysore Rasam

Instead of adding the tamarind in the begining add the lime juice at last, as you did for the lime rasam.

Brinjal Mysore Rasam

Slit the small brinjals into four without fully cutting them.

Cook the brinjal in tamarind water and repeat the same procedure.
————————————————————————————————-
Pepper – Jeera Rasam

Already in y previous post I have explained to you about the preparation of pepper – jeera rasam powder. Always keep it handy.
This can be done with or with out tomatoes.

Ingredients
Tamarind – size of small lemon if you are using tomato
size of a big lime if tomato is not used.
Rasam Powder – 2 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 Tbs with its water

Procedure
Stain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of putting the tomato as pieces you grind the tomato and add the puree. This will enhance the color of the rasam.

-Add the rasam powder, salt and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of the rasam powder vanishes.

-Now smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

For this rasam asafoetida &
coriander are not required. Instead just crush few fresh curry leaves with a pinch of salt and garnish the rasam.
————————————————————————————————-
Poricha Rasam

This rasam is done without tamarind. But it is very tasty.

Ingredients

Tomato – 1 big in size
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp along with water

To fry and grind

Coriander seeds – 2 tsp, Thoordhal – 1 tsp, ChennaDhal – 1 tsp, Red Chilies – 2 Nos, Black pepper – 1/2 tsp, Asafoetida -1/4 tsp. Roast the above in a spoon of ghee or oil. Allow it to cool and grind the ingredients with 1 Tbl spoon of fresh coconut.

For Seasoning

Cumin’s seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure

-Grind the tomato and boil it just for 2 to3 minutes by adding little water, so that its raw flavour will vanish.

-Fry the things given above and make it into a paste. Mix the paste with the boiling tomatoes.

- Let it forth. Switch of the stove. This rasam need not be boiled for a very long time like other rasams because all the ingredients are already cooked.

-Saute cumin’s seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

- Garnish the rasam with chopped coriander and finely chopped ripped tomatoes.
————————————————————————————————-
Garlic Rasam

This rasam can be prepared in 2 ways

I METHOD

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lemon size
Red Chillies- 2 nos
Black pepper – 1/2 tsp
Jeera- 1/2 tsp
Dhania – 1 tsp
Thoor Dhal -1 tsp
Chenna Dhal – 1 tsp
Garlic – 6 flakes

Procedure

-Fry all the above ingredients except tamarind till they are golden brown. While frying add garlic only when the dhal is golden brown in colour colour. Since garlic has water content if you add it first itself, it will get cooked faster and the remaining things will not get fried.

-After adding garlic you should fry till nice aroma comes.

- Grind all these into a smooth paste by adding sufficient water.

-Stain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Allow it to boil for about 5 minutes after adding salt to it.

-Add the ground mixture to the boiling rasam and again allow it to boil for about 2 minutes.

-If the rasam is strong dilute it with water. Saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

METHOD II

Prepare pepper – jeera rasam as I have explained above.

Saute mustard in ghee & add 10 flakes of garlic, roast it well and add it to rasam. Close the vessel.

As the garlic gets soaked in the rasam, it will give a rich flavour and taste.
————————————————————————————————-

Gottu Rasam or Bachelor’s rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lime size
Tomato – big one
Rasam Powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Raw Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder -1/2 tsp

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure
- Cut tomato into small pieces. You don’t need cooked thoor dhal for this rasam.

-Add tamarind, tomato pieces rasam powder, turmeric powder, raw thoor dhal and salt and allow it to boil till the thoor dhal is cooked ( Killu padam i.e you must be able to break the cooked dhal in a single pinch).

- Add water and dilute the rasam to the required quantity.

-Add coriander leaves,saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves add it to rasam. Finally after the whole procedure is over add asafoetida and immediately close it atleast for 10minutes so that the flavour is not lost.

This is very simple but delicious rasam.
————————————————————————————————-

Butter Milk Rasam

You can call it as emergency rasam. Can be done in two methods.

Method I

Ingredients

Butter Milk -2 cups
Red chillies – 4
Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp
ChennaDhal – 1 tsp
Dhaniya- 1 tsp
Methi seeds -1/4 tsp
Coconut -2 tsp
Trumeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida – 1/4 spoon

Procedure

- Fry Red chillies ,Thoor Dhal ,ChennaDhal ,Dhaniya and Methi seeds till the dhal is golden brown in colour

-Allow it to cool and make it into a fine paste by adding coconut and asafoetida.

- Mix it with the butter milk and add required amount of salt.

-Saute mustard along with curry leaves and 1 pinch of turmeric powder in 1 tsp of coconut oil (preferable) and add it to rasam. Garnish it with coriander leaves

Method II

Keep 2 cups of butter milk ready.

Add 2 tsp of coconut or cooking oil to the pan. Pre heat the oil.
Add mustard seeds and when it starts spluttering, add 2 tsp rasam powder, 1 pinch methi powder, 1 pinch turmeric powder, 1/4 asafoetida and finally curry leaves and add it to butter milk.
Garnish it with chopped coriander and 1 tsp of freshly grated coconut.
————————————————————————————————-

Rasam is a famous south Indian soup. It is prepared with tamarind, tomatoes , coriander seeds, pepper etc and it is a good digester. It is simple and very fast made dish and goes well with hot rice and a spoon of ghee. There are umpteen varieties of Rasam. I will start elaborating with rasapodi.

1. Rasam powder without dhal

Ingredients

Coriander seeds (Dhaniya)-2 cups
Red chilies – 3 cups
Black pepper – 3/4 cup
Cumin’s seeds – 1 cup
Methi seeds -1 tsp
Turmeric powder -1 tsp (optional)
( You can add turmeric powder while preparing rasam)

Dry the above ingredients in the sun (or preheat it in oven) and when it is hot grind it into a little bit coarse powder. Store it in an air tight bottle. Since we don’t add dhal to it there will be less sediments while preparing rasam.

2 Rasam powder with dhal

Ingredients

Coriander seeds (Dhaniya)-2 cups
Red chilies – 3 cups
Black pepper – 3/4 cup
Cumin’s seeds – 1 cup
Thoor Dhal – 1 cup
Methi seeds -1 tsp
Turmeric powder -1 tsp (optional)
( You can add turmeric powder while preparing rasam)
You can make this powder in two ways.

I method
Dry the above ingredients in the sun and when it is hot grind it little bit coarse. Store it in an air tight bottle.
II method
Dry fry all the ingredients one by one and then grind the into a coarse powder. If you want you can add asafoetide even while grinding the powder. But it is always better to add it while doing the rasam so that the flavour is not lost.

3 Millagu – Jeera ( Pepper ) rasam powder

This rasam is done without coriander seeds and no asafioetida is required.

Ingredients

Black pepper – 1/2 cup
Jeera – 1/2 cup
Thoor Dhal – 1 cup
Red Chillies – 1/2 cup

Dry the above ingredients in the sun ( or preheat it in oven ) and when it is hot grind it into a little bit coarse powder.

4 Udupi Rasam Powder

I read this preparation form Mangayar malar. It was excellent to taste Udupi rasam. To prepare this powder I bought all the necessary ingredients measured form the shop itself.

Ingredients

Coriander seeds – 110gms
kashmiri chilies – 100 gms
Red Chilies -75gms
(one which is little bit hot)
Black pepper – 50 gms
Methi
n> seeds – 25 gms
Chenna Dhal – 25 gms
Cumin’s seeds (Jeera) – 30 grams
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida _ 1 small piece.

Procedure

- Dry all the chilies in hot sun or preheat it in oven.
- Same way dry the remaining ingredients separately.
-Dry fry methi seeds and mustard seeds in a pan. Let the mustard seeds pop up.
- Apply 1 tsp oil in the pan and fry the chilies till all them are polished with oil.
- Apply 1/4 oil and fry the coriander seeds till the raw flavour vanishes.
-Again apply 1/4 oil in the pan and fry chenna dhal till it is golden brown and add the jeera to it and fry it for few seconds.
- Now mix all the fried ingredients in the hot kadai in which you fried the dhal .
- Even while it is little bit hot grind it into fine powder. Allow it to cool and store it in an air tight container.

If I try anything else innovative in this variety I will add on to this post.

Tips : What ever be the type of rasam, if you add this magic powder to it before you bring it to boil, then it will become a super – duper rasam and gives out a fine flavour.

Magic powder ingredients

Make this powder in small quantities to retain the fresh flavour

-coriander seeds – 1 TB spoon
- cumin’s seeds-1 TB spoon
- black pepper – 1/2 tsp
Heat them in the sun or oven and grind them into a fine powder.

PURE COCONUT CHUTNEY

Ingredients

To Grind
Pure grated coconut – 1 cup
Fried gram (pottukadalai) – 1 Table spoon
green chillies – 2 Nos ( If you need little bit hot chutney increase the nos of chillies)

For seasoning
mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
broken urud dhal – 1 tsp
curry leaves – 10 to 15 nos
oil – 1 tsp

Procedure

- Season the mustard seed, urud dhal and the curry with oil.
- Fry the green chillies
- Now grind the coconut, fried gram and green chillies and make into a paste.
- Add the necessary quantity of water to dilute the paste and the seasoned things.
- Add a 1 pinch of perungayam and1/2 tsp lemon juice ( if you like then grind a small piece of tamarind. But adding lemon juice, we will get a new flavour).

Always add the seasoned things at the time of serving to retain the freshness.