Miriyala charu (Pepper rasam)

This is one of the light dishes which you can relish most ideally with rice... a traditional Andhra recipe. You can drink it like soup.... on a rainy day... or serve it hot for easing a runny nose. I got the recipe from my sister-in-law and I'm blogging it now.

And here is the source of curry leaves from my garden...

Ingredients:  

  For Charu/Soup:

• Tamarind - lemon size
• 2 Tomatoes
• 10 Garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1/2 tbsp Jaggery powder (brown sugar)
• Salt
• Curry leaves
• 4 to 6 cups water

 

For Charu Powder:

• 2 tbsp Toor daal
• 1 tbsp Pepper corn
• 1/2 tbsp Cumin/Jeera
• 1/2 tsp Methi/Fenugreek seeds
• 1 tbsp Coriander seeds (optional, not in picture)
• 2 dry red Chillies (optional, if you want more spicy rasam)

  
For Tadka/Tempering:

• 1/3 tsp Asafoetida
• 1 tsp Jeera
• 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
• 2 dry Red chillies
• 1 tbsp Oil
•  Coriander leaves

Preparation:   

Soak tamarind in a bowl for 10 to 15 minutes.

Heat pan/kadai and add tool daal, pepper, jeera, methi seeds and coriander seeds (red chillies if required). Stir the ingredients on low heat until toor daal turns golden brown.

 Make a powder of the above ingredients and keep it aside.

 

Extract tamarind pulp by adding more water. Cut tomatoes and crush the garlic. 

 

Add cut tomateos and mash them with hands (riped tomatoes are better). Now add crushed garlic, turmeric powder, salt, jaggery powder, curry leaves and charu powder to the taramind water and mix well.

  

Let it boil for 10 minutes and add chopped coriander leaves at the end to preserve the aroma.

Now heat oil in a tadka pan and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add jeera, red chillies, more curry leaves and stir for few seconds. Add asafeotida and turn off heat.

Add this to charu and mix well. Serve it hot with rice and appadam/papad.