Milagu rasam

Up until a few days back, I had absolutely no intention of blogging about something as mundane as rasam. A question from my brother as to what went into the making of milagu rasam is what made me think that there are people out there who could use this recipe. Milagu rasam is usually made when someone at home suffers from cold or cough.....the pepper and cumin in it have curative properties and soothe the throat.

What you need:
Tamarind - a lemon sized amount, soaked in hot water and squeezed to extract pulp
Peppercorns - 3/4 tsp
Cumin seeds - 3/4 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Heat a spoonful of ghee in a pan. Coarsely crush the cumin a pepper together using a pestle and mortar or in the blender. Fry this, along with the curry leaves,in ghee until aromatic and dark brown in colour.

Add tamarind extract to this. Add turmeric powder and salt. Let it boil until it is reduced to about 3/4th of the original quantity.

Add a cup of water and heat until it just starts to boil. Switch off heat. Heat a tsp of ghee in a small pan. Add some mustard seeds, broken red chillies and cumin seeds to it. When the seeds start to pop, pour it over the rasam.

Drink this hot or mix with hot rice.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.