Pepper Rasam

I am not a big fan of sweets. Spicy, tangy are my flavors. Today's post pepper rasam is a spicy tangy soup made with lentils and falvoured with freshly ground pepper.
Back home in India, our meal often comprised of a dal, rasam/sambar or pulusu and a curry or a fry. Rasam/sambar was a must every day and my mom can cook at least 10 different varieties of rasams.
This pepper rasam tastes heavenly specially when you are down with cold/cough.

Ingredients:

• Toor dal: 1/4 cup
• Pepper Corns: 1/2 tsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Tamarind Juice: 1 tbsp
• Salt as required.
• Chopped Cilantro: 2 tbsp

Seasoning:

• Oil: 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
• Curry Leaves: 4
• Red chillies( Broken): 3
• Turmeric: 1/2 tsp
• Asoefetida(hing): a pinch

Procedure:

1. Boil the dal with enough water in a pressure cooker until you get 2-3 whistles.
2. While the dal is boiling prepare the spice mix grinding the pepper corns and cumin seeds in a spice grinder into a fine powder and set it aside.
3. When the dal is cooled, mash it well into a paste or you can use a blender to make a thin paste.
4. Add more water to the dal paste and mix well and let it boil for 10 minutes.
5. Add tamarind juice, salt and the pepper cumin powder and mix well. Boil the liquid with spices for few more minutes.
6. Now add the seasoning ingredients to a pan in the order mentioned and when the seeds start spluttering, add it to the boiling dal. Turn off the stove and garnish with Cilantro.
7. Serve with steamed rice.

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Pottu Pesara Kattu

Blogging is very addictive. I open up my blog with the intention of posting a recipe and before I start that, I will check some of my fav blogs and from the comments section on those blogs, I enter few more blogs and from there to few other blogs and this goes on. Does that sound like "been there done that" :) I'm sure it sounds familiar to every food blogger.

Here are some of the blogs I check almost every day.
RedChillies - I like her style of writing.
VeggieBelly - This blog I visit for it's amazing pictures.
Talimpu - Has some authentic south Indian recipes.

RedChillies maintains a food blog aggregator. My fav space on the web:) And, once you visit that page you are sure to get lost in the world of food blogs.

So, I opened up my browser to post this recipe and like I said, went to my fav blogs and from there to some other blogs, browsed for 2 hours and now back to posting the recipe:) here it is:
This is a simple soup/rasam kinda dish that got passed on from my grand mom to mom and from my mom to me.



Ingredients:
Split moong dal with the coat: 1/2 cup
satl as required.
Ginger (grated) : 1/2 tsp

Seasoning:
Oil/Ghee: 2 tsp
Mustard seed: 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Redchillies(broken): 4
Curry leaves: 5
Garlic: 1 clove
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Asoefetida(hing): a pinch


Procedure:

1. Cook the moong dal with water and salt in a pressure cooker until you get 2-3 whistles.
2. Remove the cooker lid and add more water and ginger and the dal cook in the water for 10-15 minutes without the lid.
3. Make sure the dal becomes soft and gets blended into the water.
4. In a seasoning pan, add oil and when the oil is hot, add all the seasoning ingredients in the order mentioned.
5. When the seeds start spluttering add the seasoning to the dal and water mixture and remove from heat. 
6. Adjust salt.
7. Add more red chillies if you like it more spicy. all the spice in this recipe comes form red chillies.
8. Optionally you can use oil instead of ghee(clarified butter) for seasoning or you can use half oil and half ghee.
9. Serve with steamed rice.

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Nimmakaya Pappucharu(Lime lentil soup)

Ingredients:

Tomatoes	1 medium - sized
Onion	1/2 Large - sized
Green Chillies	3
Cilantro leaves	10-15
Garlic	1 pod
Lime Juice	1 tbsp
Toor dal	1/2 cup
Salt	as required
Ghee	1 tbsp

Seasoning:

Urad dal	1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds	1/2 tsp
Curry leaves	5
Broken red chillies	2
Turmeric	1/4 tsp
Asafetida/hing	1 pinch

Procedure:

Boil toor dal with water in a pressure cooker adding salt and turmeric powder.

Mash the boiled dal evenly in to a smooth paste without any lumps.

Add more water to the dal and keep boiling on a low flame.

Chop the onions length wise. Cut the tomatoes into medium size pieces.

Cut the green chillies length wise.

Now add ghee to a pan and add the seasoning ingredients in order mentioned and when the seeds start spluttering add onions, tomatoes, garlic and green chillies and fry them together.

When the onions turn soft and brown add them to the boiling dal. Add salt as required.

Boil dal for another 5-10 minutes and turn off the stove. Add the lemon juice.

Garnish with cilantro.

Serve with steamed rice.

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Carrot Rasam

I am always looking for ways to add more veggies to my recipes.

This carrot rasam is a a delicious recipe and a secret way to add carrots to kids diet.

Carrots are cooked with lentils, puree'd and spiced up with pepper and green chillies.



Ingredients:

Tomatoes(medium - sized)	1
Carrots(diced)	2
Garlic	1 pod
Ginger	small piece
Toor dal/split pigeon peas	1/2 cup
Green Chillies	2
Ground Black Pepper	1 tsp
Salt	as required
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tbsp

Seasoning:

Oil/Ghee	2 tsp
Urad dal	1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds	1/2 tsp
Red Chillies(broken)	1
Curry leaves	5
Turmeric powder	1/4 tsp
Asoefetida	a pinch

Procedure:

Pressure cook toor dal with carrots, tomato and salt.

Puree the cooked dal, tamato and carrots in a blender.

Add the puree to a sauce pan and add water and dilute it to required consistency and bring to a boil.

Add green chillies, crushed garlic and ginger and let the rasam boil for 10-15 minutes on a low falme.

Heat oil/ghee in a small seasoning pan and add all the seasoning ingredients in the order mentioned.

When the seeds start spluttering, add the seasoning to the rasam/soup in the sauce pan.

Now addlemon juice,  black pepper and garnish with cilantro.

Suggestion: You can add fresh carrots cut in to very small pieces or thin strips to the cooked rasam.

Serve with hot steamed rice or just have like a soup.

Carrot Soup

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