Green Chilly Rasam!

Of late I believe there has been a fish overdose in my blog. In fact, I believe there has been a non veg overdose in my blog..he he! So in the interest of my herbivores friends, and to prove to everyone that I am not a cannibal and that I can be an animal lover when I want to, I decided to make a very popular south Indian spicy soup.

There are so many different varieties of rasam- lemon rasam, garlic rasam, tomato rasam, pepper rasam...the list is endless. I saw this particular recipe on a popular Malayalam channel, "Asianet Plus" and thought it was something different because I have not heard of this particular variety before. I'm glad I tried it out, coz the result was something spicy and tangy and just purrrfect! Rice, rasam and pickle....aah, another combination that comes under the "comfort food" category. So, before I bore you any more, here's the recipe...

INGREDIENTS

• 4 green chillies- cut into small round pieces
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 1/4 inch piece of ginger, chopped finely
• A small piece of tamarind, the size of a small lemon, immersed in half a cup of hot water. If using tamarind paste, 1 tablespoon.
• 1 cup hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
• 1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder (optional- I did not use this)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Salt to taste
• Curry leaves- loads!

METHOD

• Heat a tablespoon of oil. To this add green chillies, followed by garlic and ginger. Saute this until the raw smell disappears.
• Add a few curry leaves and some salt at this stage.
• Now add the tamarind water to this and continue stirring till it starts boiling profusely.
• Add the water and check salt levels.
• Leave this for 2 minutes, allowing the tamarind pulp and salt to be absorbed in this mixture.
• At this stage, add the pepper powder and the asafoetida and stir.
• After about 2 minutes, switch of the stove and garnish with curry leaves.

Tada, rasam is ready! Normally coriander leaves are used to give that extra smell to the rasam. I have omitted that though and used curry leaves instead. Do try this out and let me know your thoughts! oh, almost forgot..the pics!

God bless!