Kongu rasam:

Kongu rasam:

1. Take about 500 ml dhal water.

2. We cook the dhal in a vessel(not pressure cooker). So we add a small tomato to it when the dhal is cooking. When the tomato becomes slightly tender & the skin splits open, remove it form the dhal & peel the skin. Mash it. If u r using pressure cooker to cook dhal, u can use raw tomato or steam cook it separately.

3. Extract juice from about a small gooseberry sized tamarind & add it to the mashed tomato pulp. Add 1/2 tsp KMP, turmeric & salt to it . Mix

4. Crush 3 garlic pods.

5. Heat a tsp oil. Splutter mustard & then add 1/2 tsp jeera & 1 dry chillies broken, 1/2 to 1 green chilly, curry leaves & the garlic. saute for 30 secs.

6. Add in the tamarind-tomato mix & let it boil until the raw smell of tamarind goes off.

7. Add the dhal water. Check for salt. When it starts to foam & u see small bubbles here & there, switch off flame. Do not let it boil.

8. In the serving vessel, add 1- 1 1/2 tsp of kongu rasam pwd & cori leaves. Pour the rasam immediately to the serving vessel, mix once & close it with a lid until serving time.

Variation: My MIL uses only tamarind(no tomato) & KMP for rasam. She just crushes some fresh jeera & pepper pwd everyday & add it to the rasam. Her KMP smells & tastes a bit diff from mom's KMP...maybe coz of the ratio of the ingre... I'll try to gert her KMP recipe sometime later.

Mom grinds a fresh batch of rasam pwd every month...