Lentil Rasam
The next recipe, I am putting together is how to make Lentil Rasam( South Indian favorite)
Ingredients
Toor dal/Pigeon pea Split -1/2 cup
Tomatoes – 3 medium
Tamarind paste – 2 table-spoon
Rasam powder ( sakthi brand) – 1 1/2 tablespoons
Salt to taste
Water-2 cups
fresh Cilantro
Step -1
Take half cup of toor dal / pigeon pea split in pan which you could use to pressure cook or in a micro wave container with a lid.
Make sure you wash the toor dal and pour enough boiling water until the toor dal gets submerged fully. Then soak for about 20 minutes with a lid on top of the container, if you are going to cook in a micro wave container cover it with the lid and then cook for about 20 minutes till the dal is soft.
If you are using regular pressure cooker, then you could skip the soaking portion and add the dal with cold water in a steel container which can be use to put into the pressure cooker. Make sure there is enough water in the bottom of the pressure cooker pan so the dal could cook for about 10 to 15 minutes.
Step-2
Take three medium tomatoes or 2 large which ever you have, cut them up and puree them in a blender.
Step-3
Pour the tomatoe puree into a container which you could boil on the stove.
Step-4
Dilute 2 table spoons of tamarind paste in 1/2 cup of water and pour it into the tomatoe puree which should have started heating up in a pan on the stove.
Step-5
Take 1 1/2 tablespoons of Sakthi Rasam Powder and put into the tomatoe puree and tamarind paste which is on the stove. It should have started boiling. After you add the Rasam powder allow the mixture to boil for at least 10 minutes on medium flame, so the raw flavor from tomatoe, tamarind and rasam powder gets cooked.
This is how Rasam powder looks.
Step-6
This is how the mixture looks while boiling after adding all the ingredients . Add salt to taste
Step-7
The Lentil which you have cooked in Step-1 you want to blend it adding water and pour it into the mixture you saw on step-6. After adding the dal (lentil), you would see a little bit of froth forming on the top and the color of Rasam turning to a golden red. This is when you add fresh coriander and switch off the stove.
Once Rasam is done, you can have it with hot White Rice. This is south India’s comfort food, when you have sore throat, cold and cough. You would love to just have hot hot Rasam Rice. Enjoy.
