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Vilampazham or Wood Apple Rasam

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Ingredients Method Video

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

Method
 

  1. Set the toor dal to boil in 3/4 litre of water in a large pan or eeya chombu
  2. 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.
  3. Put it in a bowl, add a little water and mash with your hands to loosen the fibres and seeds
  4. Strain this and reserve the extracted pulp. Repeat by adding more water a few times until all the pulp has been extracted.
  5. 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.
  6. Once the dal is cooked, pour the vilampazham water in
  7. Add the turmeric, rasam powder, jaggery, and salt
  8. If you need to add tamarind water, do so now as well.
  9. Drop a few of the vilampazham shells into the rasam, too.
  10. 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:
  1. 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.
  2. Fry these for a moment, and then pour this onto the frothing rasam. Switch off the flame.
  3. Lift out the shells and add lots of fresh coriander leaves and stalks
  4. Serve hot with more ghee and a soft rice like ottadaiyan or khichli samba