Pepper Rasam

Pepper rasam is one of the must haves in our home while one of us have cold.  This is a comfort food for us. There are so many reasons to cook this at home - When there are no veggies at home or no mood to cook or sometimes that urge to have the hot rasam.. so many reasons :)

Most of all, it tastes good even the next day. When I grew up, most of the days, we used to have rasam rice and egg burji for dinner. The best combination is Hot rice , rasam , appalam(pappad) and potato fry.

Ingredients:

Pepper - 1 tablespoon
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Garlic - around 6 big pods
Medium size tomato - 1
Green chilli - 1 small (optional)
Tamarind Juice - 1 small lemon sized ball or 1 teaspoon tamarind paste.
salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - a pinch

For seasoning:
Oil - 1 teaspoon
mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
methi seeds - 1 teaspoon
curry leaves - 2 sprigs
asafoetida powder - 1/2 teaspoon
coriander leaves - take a generous amount along with stems.

Preparation:

1. Crush the pepper and cumin seeds along with garlic and the green chili. It is actually not required to even peel the garlic.Just wash them and crush them.But if you do not like the idea of keeping the skin on, go ahead and peel them.Crush them together in the mortar and pestle(for best results).If you do not have one, crush them in the mixer-grinder.
2. Cut tomatoes into half and add some water and the crushed spices and boil it.Once the tomatoes are soft, peel the skin from them and mash them a little and keep it aside.
1. An alternate and faster way is to add the cut tomatoes to the pepper , cumin seeds and green chilli and grind just a little bit in the mixie.
3. Add two cups of water to the tamarind juice.
4. Keep the kadai on the stove and add the oil.
5. Once oil is heated, add mustard seeds , methi seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida powder.
6. Add the tomato mixture and add the tamarind water.
7. Add the turmeric powder. Keep it in medium heat and let it come to a boil.
8. When it is about to boil, add the washed coriander leaves along with the stems(Just roughly break with your hand).
9. Do not let it boil very much, Once it boils for around 10 seconds, stop the stove, take it and pour in the serving bowl and then add salt.

Enjoy it with hot rice and your favorite side dish. It would be better if the rice is well cooked for this.