Rasam

The lentils are optional and the tart stock is not, which is why it is thinner than sambar.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee).

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons tamarind paste
• 1.4 litres water
• 60 g toor dal, optional
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 teaspoons black pepper, coarsely crushed
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, coarsely crushed
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 shallots, sliced
• 1 teaspoon jaggery
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 15 curry leaves
• 2 dried red chillies
• 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
• 2 tablespoons ghee
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 30 g coriander leaves

Method

1. THE LENTILS ARE OPTIONAL AND THE TART STOCK IS NOT, WHICH IS WHY IT IS THINNER THAN SAMBAR. Its article settles the comparison itself: rasam has a distinct taste beside sambar because of its own seasoning and is WATERY IN CONSISTENCY. And its ingredient list puts the two in the right order of importance -- prepared MAINLY with a TART BASE of kokum, malabar tamarind, tamarind or dried green mango stock, while a dal or lentil stock IS OPTIONAL though used in several recipes. So the lentils thicken it when they are there, and when they are not it is still rasam. Sambar, as on its own page, cannot say that: take the pigeon peas out of a sambar and there is no dish left.
2. THE PEPPER AND CUMIN ARE CRUSHED COARSE, NOT GROUND. Two teaspoons of each, broken in a mortar. These are the seasonings its article means by a distinct taste, and ground to powder they go muddy and disappear.
3. THE TART BASE IS BOILED HARD FIRST. Tamarind in the water with the turmeric, ten minutes at a boil, before anything else. This is the stock and everything else is added to it.
4. ITS ARTICLE OFFERS FOUR DIFFERENT SOUR BASES AND THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. Kokum, malabar tamarind, ordinary tamarind, or amchur. Kokum is fruitier and darker, amchur sharper and cleaner. Pick one and say which.
5. IF THE DAL GOES IN, IT GOES IN COOKED AND THIN. Sixty grams only, boiled soft and whisked into the stock. More than that and you have made a thin sambar.
6. THE JAGGERY IS A TEASPOON AND IT IS NOT FOR SWEETNESS. It rounds off the tamarind. A reader who leaves it out gets something noticeably harsher.
7. IT IS BARELY SIMMERED AFTER THE TOMATOES GO IN. Five minutes. A long boil muddies it and the dish is supposed to taste sharp and clear.
8. THE TEMPERING IS LAST AND THE LID GOES ON. Mustard seeds, curry leaves, chillies and asafoetida in ghee, poured in, covered for a minute to hold the aroma.
9. IT IS A SIDE DISH OVER RICE, WHICH ITS ARTICLE IS CLEAR ABOUT. Served with rice, as part of a course that also includes sambar rice -- so the two appear at the same meal rather than instead of one another.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes