Homemade Rasam Powder/Rasam Podi

Indian basics is the theme for the second week of Blogging Marathon#18 and today's recipe is rasam powder.
Rasam is a very comforting food and it is made on almost everyday in most of the South Indian families for lunch or dinner menu.
We make rasam everyday and without rasam our meal won't be complete and satisfied.I always keep the rasam powder in my pantry to make the rasam in a jiffy.
Each family has their own signature recipe to make the rasam powder and rasam,this is my mom's recipe.Now on to the recipe.......

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Toor dhal/thuvaram paruppu	1/2cup
Coriander seeds/varakothamalli	1/2cup
Red chilly/varamilagai	10nos.
Cumin seeds/jeeragam	3/4cup
Black pepper/milagu	3/4cup
Curry leaves/karivepillai	4-5sprigs

Method

• Sun dry all the ingredients separately for 2 hours or dry roast all the ingredients separately without changing the color.
• Powder the toor dhal,red chillies,coriander seeds in a blender to a coarse then add the cumin seeds and pepper to it.Grind it till it becomes grainy.

Store it in a air tight container.

• Do not grind it to a very fine powder,it should be grainy.
• First grind the dhal,coriander seeds and red chillies,after adding the cumin seeds and pepper pulse it.
• While roasting the ingredients make sure it doesn't change the color it should get warm for easy grinding.
• Instead of roasting or sun drying it can be kept in the microwave for 2 minutes to get crisp.
• This powder can be stored in room temperature for a month and in the freezer for 6 months.
• To maintain the freshness and flavor store it in an air tight container or a zip-lock bag.

Simple Rasam using the homemade Rasam powder

                   
This is a very simple rasam which can be made in no time without using any cooked and mashed dhal as the powder has dhal.I make this rasam when I am in a hurry or want to have a comforting dinner.This rasam tastes good with rice along with some potato fry or raw banana fry or some pickle and chutney.

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Tomato	1no.(medium size)
Tamarind paste	11/2tsp(diluted with 11/2cups of water)
Rasam powder	2tsp
Garlic/poondu	2 cloves(crushed)
Red chilly(broken)	1no.
Curry leaves/karivepillai	1sprig
Coriander leaves	as needed
Mustard seeds/kadugu	1/2tsp
Asafoetida/perungayam	a pinch
Turmeric powder/manjal podi	1/8tsp
Salt	to taste
Oil	1tsp

Method

• Chop the tomatoes to fine pieces and in a bowl take the tamarind water,add the chopped tomato.
• Add in salt,rasam powder,crushed garlic,coriander leaves and mix it well.
• Heat a pan with oil and do the tempering with mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds,add a pinch of asafoetida,turmeric powder,broken red chilly and curry leaves.Then add the prepared tamarind water to it and cook it for one boil.
• Transfer it to a bowl,add coriander leaves and close it with the lid.
• Simple rasam is ready to serve.

• Do not cook the rasam for a long time,it will change the taste.
• Here I used the store bought tamarind paste,if you are using the tamarind a big gooseberry size can be used for the given measurement.

Check out blogger friends running in  Blogging Marathon#18.