Pepper rasam for the body and soul!

Woke up with a headache! What could be the reason? Iraq war, food prices doubling, did I have a fight with darling hubby ? .. Hmm.... Nothing Psychological, just something physiological :) A head cold..Sigh... . As I waited for the natural order of sequence to follow.. Yeah ! It usually is a head cold followed by cough ,fever and body ache... I remembered my dear Amma making a rasam - the all purpose, feel good rasam for everything under the sun.

The recipe for this soul food:

Toor dal - 2 Tbsp

Pepper - 1/2 tbsp

Dhania - 1/2 tbsp

Jeera - 1/4 tbsp

Red chilli - 1

Roast the above ingredients with 1 spoon of Ghee. I prefer ghee as it brings out the natural flavor and what the heck ! I said this is soul food :)

Grind everything in a blender and at this stage I usually add 1 tomato ( roma or regular variety)
Now I have a nice red mix resembling chutney in consistency.

Empty this mix in a saucepan and add tamarind extract ( I just add a spoon of tamarind paste and 2 cups of water.. Ah well, I am a quick fix , gourmet cook :) If you use tamarind, a small key lime sized ball soaked in 2 cups of hot water and extracted, should do the trick.)

Add hing and 1/4 tsp of haldi ( turmeric) powder.

Let it boil well for about 10 min. This will reduce only minimally in volume. If you reduce the mix a lot you will have a very sour soup!

The aroma is enough to waft through the entire house.... and soon enough it is confirmed by my hubby with a " Is it Milgau rasam? It smells so good!"

The last step, the final flourish ...A tadka with Jeera and mustard seed. Add a spoon of ghee and let 1/4 tsp each of mustard seeds and jeera sputter . The zing of this tadka is wonderful...

Add , curry leaves with the tadka and it brings an entirely wonderful aroma.......


Enjoy this with a bowl of steaming rice or just by itself. I swear ! this is like one of the cure it all recipes....

Now as for me, after a bowl of this I can take on the world!


Enjoy...................