Poondu Rasam (Garlic rasam)

I have got back to the routine of cooking once in 2-3 days...that's my excuse for not posting in a while. Here is something I did a while back, Poondu Rasam. This Rasam will make you feel good even when you fall sick.

Ingredients

Garlic (Poondu) - 3-4 cloves
Tomato (thakkali) - 1 cut into medium size pieces
Tamarind (Puli) - 3-4 pieces of 50 cent(paise) size
Sambhar powder - 1-2 teaspoons
Butter melted (Nei) - 1 teaspoon
Cilantro (kothamalli) - 6-7 leaves
Salt (Uppu)- 1/2 teaspoon (add to taste)
Mustard (Kadugu)- 1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder (manjal podi)- less than 1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida powder (perungaya podi) - less than 1/4 teaspoon
Whole pepper (muzhu milagu) – 3/4 tsp
Dry Red Chillies (chaeppu milagai) –4
Coriander Seeds (dhaniya) - 2 tspns
Channa Dhal (kadala paruppu) – 1 tspn
Cumin Seeds (jeeragam) - 3/4 tspn
Curry Leaves - 5 to 6 leaves
Oil – 2 tspns

Take the Tamarind and boil it in 2-3 cups of water, and let it cool down to lukewarm temperature. Squeeze the tamarind to get as much juice as you can from it, and then remove the tamarind remains(sakkai).

To prepare the Rasam Powder: Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and fry the pepper, red chillies, channa dhal & coriander seeds till the channa dhal turns golden brown. Remove from heat and let the ingredients cool down. Grind the cooled down ingredients with curry leaves, cumin seeds (raw) to form a medium coarse powder.

In the same pan, heat 1 tsp of oil and fry the cut garlic cloves till they turn golden brown and keep aside.

Heat a saucepan with the tamarind juice, add Sambhar powder, turmeric, cut tomato, salt, 1 more cup of water and let it boil till the raw smell of Sambhar powder is gone. When it starts boiling, add the ground powder and turn down heat to medium low/medium. Keep on the stove for 5-7 minutes. Add the fried garlic to the boiling mixture. Let this boil for another 5 minutes.

Heat Butter/Ghee in a pan, add Asofoetida, mustard seeds and let the mustard pop. Add this to the Rasam and garnish with fresh Cilantro.

Serve with rice or just by itself like a soup.

Serving Size: 4