Recipe for Mysore Rasam - Karnataka Cuisine

My disdain for rasam is as strong as my love for sambar. In fact, I will happily give rasam a skip at family lunches and wedding 'elai sappadu' (banana leaf meals) - to have a double helping of sambar rice. But there's one exception to this rule - Mysore Rasam. This is one of the three dishes that are named after the city Mysore, the other two being Mysorepak and Mysore Masala Dosa. 

While most soups in the rasam family are called 'Saaru' in Karnataka cuisine parlance, this one, despite being from Karnataka is still called rasam. It is full of flavour from the freshly ground spices, and the dal (lentils) in the spice mix, makes the rasam somewhat thicker than its watery counterparts. Both my mum and grandmum make this rasam often. When there's Mysore Rasam on the menu, there is no sambar, and rasam gets the position of star of the meal. 

I am somewhat lazy to make this often due to the roasting and grinding of spices, plus if I'm cooking for one, it's too much effort. To sort this out, I prepare the entire masala given in the recipe and use 1 heaped spoon or so, if i am making this just for myself. The rest can be put away in an airtight container in the freezer. 

This rasam recipe gets my double thumbs up, and it is a perfect warming dish for the winter evenings. Steaming hot rice, topped with lots of rasam, a spoonful of ghee that melts immediately when it hits the hot rasam-rice, to be had with a good potato roast curry - this is bliss.

Recipe for Mysore Rasam

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 tsp ghee
4 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tbsp chana dal (Bengal gram dal)
20 pepper corns
5 dried red chillies
1 cm chunk of asafoetida (if you don't have this, use the powder while preparing rasam)

3 tbsp desiccated coconut (unsweetened) 

Lemon sized ball of tamarind + 1/2 cup hot water OR 1 tsp tamarind paste

1 tsp salt

2 cups cooked tur dal with turmeric (Video: how to cook dal)

1 tomato, diced

For tempering: 1 tbsp ghee, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, curry leaves

Coriander leaves for garnish

Directions

Preparing the rasam powder or the fresh masala for the Mysore Rasam

Fry coriander seeds, asafoetida chunk, red chillies, peppercorns, on a low flame, in a few drops of ghee, until the chillies crisp up and other spices are aromatic. 
Toast the chana dal (lentils) on a medium flame for 5 minutes or so, until golden.

Roast the dessicated coconut separately until golden and keep aside. 

In the chutney attachment of the mixer or a small blender, grind this to a fine powder. 
You can blend using some water to a fine paste, but this wont stay for long on refrigerating.

Making the rasam
Make a tamarind pulp by soaking lemon sized tamarind in hot water for 15 minutes and squeezing out all the extract. Alternatively use 1 tsp of tamarind paste. 
Boil the tamarind pulp or 1 tsp paste+1 cup water, diced tomato for 5-7 minutes, until tomatoes are tender.  Add ground spice powder (all of it, to serve 6 people), 2 cups cooked tur dal, and 3.5 cups water. Add the salt and let it come to a simmer on a low flame. 
Heat the ghee in a small saucepan for tempering. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, when they splutter, add curry leaves, remove from flame and transfer over rasam. Remove rasam from heat and keep covered until ready to serve. 
Serve hot.

Serving suggestions:

• With steamed rice and a dry curry, along with banana chips or papads
• Can also be had as a soup to start an Indian meal

This post is part of the project called 'theKitchenDivas' which will have a theme going for each month, wherein we will try to do a post a week. The theme for January 2015 is Karnataka Cuisine.

You can find more Traditional Recipes from Karnataka by #TheKichenDivas

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