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Mysuru rasam

A mildly sweet and very flavorful "Karnataka special," very likely Tamil Iyengar rasam made with tomatoes and fresh coconut--either added whole in the spice mix, or as milk.
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Ingredients
  

For the rasam

  • A lime-sized ball of dry tamarind, soaked in 2 cups of water and the tamarind juice extracted
  • ¼ cup toor dal, cooked and mashed well
  • 2 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped or hand-torn and mashed roughly
  • 3 teaspoons of the pre-made rasam powder OR 4-5 teaspoons of the fresh powder
  • ½ teaspoon turmeric [skip if using the pre-made rasam powder]
  • A little jaggery
  • Salt to taste
  • ½ cup freshly extracted coconut milk from about ¼ coconut [skip if using the fresh rasam powder which has coconut already, or add less and only as a finishing element]
  • Freshly chopped coriander leaves to garnish

Option 1: using a pre-made rasam powder

  • prep the basic chaaru powder from my prior post without toor dal and mustard (see Notes for the link)
  • divide it in two halves
  • use 1/2 the quantity of toor and mustard given here to add to one half. Bottle and store. This is a regular rasam podi or charu podi.
  • add 1 teaspoon turmeric powder to the other half. Bottle separately and store. This is the podi for the Mysuru rasam.

Option 2: araithu-vitta rasam, for the fresh rasam powder

  • 1 1/2 teaspoon chana dal
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 4-5 dried red chillies [preferably byadagi]
  • 3/4 teaspoon whole black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon jeera
  • 2 sprigs curry leaves
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated coconut

For the tempering

  • 2 teaspoons ghee
  • ½ teaspoon jeera or cumin
  • ½ teaspoon black mustard seeds
  • A pinch of asafoetida or hing
  • A dry red chilli, broken
  • 1 sprig curry leaves

Instructions
 

  • Soak the tamarind to extract the water and cook the toor dal first.
  • If you’re using the fresh rasam powder, prepare it now while tamarind is soaking and dal is cooking.
  • Roast all the dry spices for the rasam powder just barely a touch of oil to keep them from burning. Then add the freshly grated coconut and roast it for barely a minute. Do not allow it to brown or burn. Cool this mixture and pulse it into a wet powder. Careful not to over grind the spices or the fats in the coconut will start to separate and then the coconut will not exude its milk in the simmering as it ought, effectively destroying the rasam. So pulse and leave this a little coarse if you must. You will need 4-5 teaspoons of this mix; save (refrigerate or freeze) any remainder for future use -- and bring to room temperature or very lightly toast before that future use.
  • In a vessel of a minimum of 1L capacity, add the tamarind water, turmeric (if using), and the tomatoes. Cook until the raw smell/taste of the tamarind disappears and the tomatoes are cooked.
  • Now add the cooked dal along with its cooking water. Adjust the water in the pan to come to about ¾ litre (ie, about ¾ full, assuming 1litre capacity). Heat on medium flame.
  • If using a pre-made Mysuru rasam powder: add 3 teaspoons now
  • If using the fresh rasam powder: add the turmeric now along with the rasam powder.
  • Add jaggery to taste (about a teaspoon or so works well for me), and salt.
  • This mixture will start to rise and froth in a few minutes, and as soon as it does—turn off the flame, wait for a minute for any bubbling to subside, and add the coconut milk, if you’re using it.

Tempering

  • Heat the ghee in a small tempering pan. Once it’s hot, drop in the cumin, mustard seeds, red chilli, and hing. Once the spices splutter, add the curry leaves.
  • Pour this over the top of the frothy, hot rasam.
  • Mix in the fresh coriander.
  • Serve hot with rice and a vegetable poriyal.

Notes

Note: Basic chaaru podi recipe to follow & modify as noted above so you wind up with both chaaru podi and Mysuru rasam podi in one go. A shortcut!