Rasam : The Essence of a Southern Indian Meal!

Once there lived a Raja who was preparing for a flamboyant wedding ceremony of his daughter. He invited people from all over the place and from across kingdoms. He wanted the ceremony at its best. On the day of the wedding, surprisingly, there was no enough Sambar to be served. Worried Raja called the Cook to discuss over the shortage. The Cook sowed some hope in Raja and told him not to worry. Later, the Raja was flabbergasted to taste a delicious dish the Cook came up with. The painstaking effort of the cook to come up with a scrumptious meal out of minimal resources pleased the Raja, and the Cook made a fortune out of it. I do not remember the identities of the Raja, Cook, and the Kingdom, but all I remember is the dish that was born out of serendipity! It is called Rasam, an indispensable item of a Southern Indian meal! I happened to hear this story of Rasam when I accidentally ran into the "grannies' club" of my village on a lazy afternoon! Whether a made-up story or a real one, all that I remembered when I started writing about Rasam is this one. It does not hurt to believe this one, unless there is some other real story about the birth of Rasam that awaits acknowledgement!

Rasam comes in many guises: As is in Tamilnadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, Thili Saaru or Rasa in Karnataka, Amti (a variant of Rasam) in Maharashtra, and the popular Mulligatawny soup in Western countries. Mulligatawny soup has derived its name from the two main ingredients that go into it: Milagu (whole black pepper), and Thanni (water, not the other one!!!!) in Tamil. Though Rasam is made out of a handful of other ingredients, whole black pepper is the hero of Rasam. Whole black pepper has been available in the Southern part of India for thousands of years now, and it has been the main ingredient to add up the spiciness of food for long and was used in traditional Chettinaad items, whereas, chilli or pepper made its entry much later from Europe.

For those who have tasted Rasam, it is a boon. Be it a digestion aid after a heavy meal or a pacifier for an itchy throat or even a hot and spicy morsel on a wintry evening, Rasam can be eaten any time in many ways. It has all good things in one form that one can relish blindfolded without any second thought! Apart from the fact that it has taken many guises over its course, it is manipulatable and experimental. These days, there are umpteen Rasam recipes all over the web and cookbooks. However, there are a few basic rules of Rasam making that is common for any kind one wants to cook. The main ingredients are tomato, tamarind, garlic, cumin, whole black pepper and asafoetida. Here is how I go about making Rasam:

1. Blanch two medium sized tomatoes, peel off the skin and squeeze or grind them to a paste.

2. Take gooseberry-size tamarind with some water in a bowl, and microwave it for a minute. The soft tamarind can now be squeezed to a watery consistency.

3. Mix them both, and get rid of some debris just by hands. No need to filter. Add a pinch of turmeric, a sprig of curry leaves and some sea salt and set aside.

4. Meanwhile, cook one cup of Split Pigeon Peas (Thuvaram paruppu, Toor dal) with four cups of water, a pinch of turmeric and sea salt upto three whistles in a pressure cooker. Once cooked, drain the water in a bowl. A few spoons of cooked dal can also be added to the drained water, but make sure there is not too much cooked dal in water, else, when the Rasam is finally made, it may have a starchy- watery consistency.

5. Grind two tsps of cumin seeds and one tsp of whole black pepper together. Pound few pods of garlic using a mortar and pestle. Add the above powder to the pounded garlic to pound again. Set aside.

6. Place a steel skillet or a cast iron skillet on stove. Once hot, add two tsps of gingely oil (sesame oil). Toss a tsp of mustard seeds, and after it spluttered add two de-seeded red chilies, a generous pinch of asafoetida and a tsp of white split Black gram. Pour the tomato-tamarind mix into it, stir well, and allow it to boil until the raw smell of the tomatoes and tamarind vanishes. It takes about a good 10 minutes in medium-high flame for it to happen.

7. I usually add a tsp of sambar powder (home made) to the boiling mixture. My guess is that it does not make a big difference, but still I can come up with my home-made sambar powder recipe in one of my forthcoming posts. This time I will go ahead with the recipe without that one.

8. After the mixture has reached a slightly thicker consistency, pour in the dal water, immediately followed by the crushed garlic and cumin-whole black pepper mixture. Adjust the salt. Mix well, allow it to begin boil. As soon as it starts frothing, and when a few bubbles start surfacing the Rasam, turn off heat, toss a handful of chopped cilantro leaves, and cover the skillet with lid. Leave the skillet there for another 10 minutes, and serve hot with rice.

Needless to say, Rasam can be prepared in many different ways. The dal water added to the tomato-tamarind paste makes the difference. I hardly make Toor dal Rasam! I use mainly Bengal gram water or Horse gram water instead. Both these grams need some extra cooking time. Bengal gram needs to be soaked and cooked, whereas Horsegram can be cooked without any soaking. Trust me, it is hard to resist the flavor that these two grams bring! Horse gram has medicinal values, and it is a Panacea for the ear, nose, throat, allergy, and congestion problems. There is another Rasam that is popular in my household, both here and in Coimbatore, India. We call it Selavu Rasam or Marundhu Rasam. This is typical of a Village recipe.

Dry Roast:

1 tsp of coriander seeds

1 tsp of Thuvaram Paruppu (Toor dal, Split Pigeon Peas)

1 tsp of Horsegram

1 tsp of cumin seeds

1 tsp of whole black pepper

Half a sprig of curry leaves

Dry roast them all together in a skillet, wait until cool, and grind to powder. Add some water, grind again to bring it to a molten consistency, and set aside.

Pour two tsps of gingely oil to a hot skillet, then add mustard seeds. Allow the seeds to splutter, then add a pinch of asafoetida, half a sprig of curry leaves, one de-seeded red chilli, few pods of crushed garlic and one peeled and finely minced shallot. Fry them all for a few seconds. Now pour the ground mix to the skillet, adjust the water level to give a final watery consistency. Adjust salt, and bring it to boil. Unlike the other Rasam, this Rasam needs some boiling time. If it gets thicker, add little more water and boil. Back home, instead of curry leaves Mommy uses Thoothuvalai leaves (Solanum tribolatum) or Vaadhanarayana leaves (English name: White Gulmohar, Botanical name: Delonix elata). Again, these leaves do wonders for anyone with cold, cough, allergy and congestion problems. One has to relish it to believe it! Do not miss a chance when you run into such wonders.

As we are nearing the end of a Rasam saga, I would like to leave a few tips and recommendations behind to contemplate upon and come up with your own style of Rasam. 

1. Seasoning is not needed in the beginning. One can boil the tomato-tamarind mixture, add dal water, etc., and finally can season it, and pour it into the Rasam.

2. Rasam can be made out of only tomatoes too! No tamarind is good, but once in a while you can give it a leeway.

3. One can use Ghee, instead of gingely oil, but remember to increase the spiciness either by adding more whole black pepper or by adding more red chillies. Personally, I prefer the whole black pepper.

It is believed that the culinary sense of a person is best revealed by the taste of Rasam the person makes. Hence, the taste of Rasam is a measure of Culinary sense in Southern India! Well, most parts of Southern India!!