Garlic Rasam

I personally love garlic and ginger in all my cuisine, except that mom and a few of my friends do not quite take to it. Nevertheless, garlic rasam is a fantastic appetizer when you are down with a terrible flu and is touted as a wonder drug that prevents various types of cancers due to the production of hydrogen sulphide in the blood stream.

Ingredients

Stewed tomatoes
Tuvar dal
Tamarind paste
Garlic 5-6 pods
Coriander seeds
Pepper corns
Cumin seeds
Turmeric powder
Hing/Asafoetida
Jaggery/Sugar Salt Green chillies
Dry red chillies Juice of lime Coriander
Curry leaves
Mustard seeds

Method
1. Pressure cook the tuvar dal and the garlic separately.
2. Dilute the tamarind paste and boil it in water until the raw spell evaporates.
3. Add the stewed tomatoes to the boiling tamarind water.
4. Roast the coriander seeds, red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin and dry grind the mixture.
5. Add the cooked dal and garlic to the rasam.
6. Add the fresh ground powder, turmeric, powdered jaggery and salt. 7. In a wok, splutter curry leaves, hing, cumin and mustard seeds, and ground pepper.
8. Pour over the rasam.
9. Once the rasam has cooled, garnish with juice of lime and shredded coriander.
Serve hot as soup or as a side dish for rice and poppadams.