Jeera Milagu poondu Rasam ( Cumin Pepper Garlic Rasam) for rainy weather

Oops !!! It is raining cats and dogs. Being not a native mumbaikar, I am not fond of this sort of continuous rains. It is fine if it rains once a while and you get drenched and enjoy it. Not if it continuously rains for months together. Anyways, I have learnt to accept the changing mumbai weather and its ways. But Rainy season brings it own opportunity to try out specific recipes that helps prepare our body for that weather. One such a thing, Jeera Milgau poondu Rasam...Hot Spicy and Slurpy !!!

Ingredients:

           Serving:  Enough to serve a family of four and preserve few for dinner.

           Lemon sized Tamarind pulp immersed in water
         
           To roast and grind: 2 spoons of Toor dhal, 1 spoon of black pepper seeds, 1 spoon of cumin seeds, 2 long red chillies, 8 to 10 peeled garlic pods, few curry leaves

           Tadka:  Cumin seeds, Curry leaves

           Turmeric powder
           Asafoetida ( optional)
           Ghee
           Salt to taste.
          
Way to go

• Extract tamarind juice thoroughly. Let the juice be about some four to five cups. Add water to get this amount
• Boil the tamarind juice extract with curry leaves and spoon of turmeric powder, a salt to taste in low medium flame for some 3 to 4 mts until raw smell goes off. 
• Meanwhile, roast the ingredients listed under "Roast and grind" in two spoons of Ghee. First roast the red chillies and keep aside, and then roast the other ingredients together. 
• Grind the roasted ingredients with little water to make a smooth paste. I chose to grind the garlic pods as well. You can choose to roast the pods and keep aside instead of grinding them.
• Now add the paste to the boiled tamarind juice ( and the garlic pods if you have kept them aside). Boil it for some 2 mts in low flame. Taste the rasam and adjust for salt if required.
• Make tadka in Ghee, my crackling cumin seeds, Hing, curry leaves. Pour tadka on the rasam and turn off the flame.
• Serve this spicy rasam hot with rice and papad. Rasam should not be thick unlike sambar. It should be in Soup consistency.