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Vilampazham or Wood Apple Rasam

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Ingredients
  

For the Rasam

  • A fistful of toor dal
  • 2-3 vilampazham or wood apple fruits
  • A little tamarind Optional; see instructions
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
  • 1-1½ teaspoons rasam powder
  • A little jaggery to taste
  • Salt to taste

Seasoning & Garnishing

  • 1 teaspoon ghee
  • ½ teaspoon each mustard seeds and jeera
  • 1 broken red chilli
  • A generous pinch of hing
  • Curry leaves
  • Fresh coriander leaves and stalks to garnish

Instructions
 

  • Set the toor dal to boil in 3/4 litre of water in a large pan or eeya chombu
  • Break open the vilampazham fruits with a stone. Reserve the shells. The pulp and fibres come out easily but now the pulp needs to be extracted.
  • Put it in a bowl, add a little water and mash with your hands to loosen the fibres and seeds
  • Strain this and reserve the extracted pulp. Repeat by adding more water a few times until all the pulp has been extracted.
  • Taste a little of this vilampazham water—if it’s very sour, you’ll need to add no tamarind. If not, tamarind may be needed to bring the rasam together.
  • Once the dal is cooked, pour the vilampazham water in
  • Add the turmeric, rasam powder, jaggery, and salt
  • If you need to add tamarind water, do so now as well.
  • Drop a few of the vilampazham shells into the rasam, too.
  • Leave this to simmer until the raw smell of tamarind is gone (if using) or until the mixture looks like it will soon froth

To season:

  • In a separate small seasoning pan, heat the ghee and drop all the dry seasonings in. When the mustard seeds splutter and the jeera crackles, follow quickly with the curry leaves.
  • Fry these for a moment, and then pour this onto the frothing rasam. Switch off the flame.
  • Lift out the shells and add lots of fresh coriander leaves and stalks
  • Serve hot with more ghee and a soft rice like ottadaiyan or khichli samba