chunky tomato rasam

A couple of days back my friend moved to india and she gave me her mom made rasam powder which is just fabulous and nothing can be better then a mom-made stuff and so these days im hooked upon to make rasams as my side dish which is also perfect for this windy/rainy/winter season of melbourne ;).You can also mash or blend the tomatoes while making this rasam but i like my tomato rasam with tomato chunks in it and hence the name i thought would be apt ,as this rasam is quite filled with tomato chunks it was also tasting palatable on its own ,it also gave the lovely dark colour to it.Sending this to pj for hosting this months healing foods-tomatoes event started by siri.Also sending this to suma for her event ,side dishes.

serves for approx 2 ppl
ingredients :
2-3 finely chopped ripened tomatoes
21/2-3 cups of hot water
1 tsp tamarind paste
1/4 tsp turmeric pwd
1-2 tsps rasam pwd
2-3 garlic cloves crushed
salt to taste
ingredients for tempering :
1 tsp ghee /oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp hing/asafoetida
3-4 broken curry leaves
method :
Chop the tomatoes finely or you can even mash them,mix them in hot water and keep it on low flame till it comes to boling point, add turmeric pwd,tamarind pulp,rasam pwd,salt and crushed garlic in it.Heat oil in another pan ,splutter mustard,cumin seeds,ural dal,curry leaves and hing and add this tempering to tomato rasam,simmer for atleast half an hr or till the tomatoes are pulpy and tender enough.Serve hot with rice.

pepper rasam

This is my first ever attempt of making rasam,and yes ofcourse,i have had it many a times but made by my mother in law or at my south indian friends places and even in bangalore restaurants,but never ever tried making myself,being a north indian it was never made at my mom's place in mumbai ,though i am married to a north indian  guy but he is settled  in southern parts of india and so obviously he and my inlaws  have a soft corner towards complete south indian meal and my hubby is also fond of sambhars/rasams/aana-saaru,so i wanted to try rasam since long and had seen this recipe long back on jay's tasty appetite blog and just loved her spicy tangy hot variety of rasam and we had lovely time having a simple and light dinner of steam rice with rasam yesterday in this winter which satisfied our palates and had a soothing cleared throat :),yes she was right my house was literally full of pepper aroma and as soon as my hubby entered in to the house he was immediately tempted to have it,i have made the exact way and ingredients just that i had some  ready made tamarind pulp and canned tomatoes which i needed to finish it up yesterday itself,so used these two things store bought,rest all is same.Sending this over to cws-pepper event started by priya and hosted by padma for this month and also to nupur for her BB4 event.-whats lurking in kitchen  ?

ingredients to dry roast :

2tbsp black pepper corns
1-2 dry red chillies
1 tbsp tur dal
2 tbsp cumin seeds
4-5 curry leaves
for tempering/tadka :
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4tsp asafoetida pwd/ hing
2-3 curry leaves
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp ghee ( i used oil instead )
rest ingredients :
2tbsp tamarind pulp
2 tomatoes chopped and mashed ( i used 1 cup -canned ones )
4 cloves of garlic
4 cups warm water
1/4 tsp turmeric pwd
salt to taste
chopped corriander leaves for garnishing
method :
Dry roast all the ingredients (under ingredients for dry roast) till you get the aroma or 2-3 mins ,let it cool down and grind coarsely into a powder.Mix tamarind pulp and water together ,add tomatoes,crushed garlic,salt,turmeric pwd and add the grinded powder ( i used 1 tbsp less as i found it was too much spicy for my family ,using less was also quite spicy but perfect for our palates,so please adjust the powder accordingly )and mix well.Heat ghee/oil,add mustard seeds,let it splutter,add curry leaves,urad dal ,hing and the mixed rasam mixture.Mix well and heat on the low flame till it comes to one boil,switch of the flame and garnish with corriander leaves.Serve hot with steamed rice.