Lemon-Tomato Rasam

[knutties]

I am gradually perfecting the art of making the lemon-tomato rasam. It has tasted great the last few times I have made it. Though the critic in me would attribute its success to the rasam powder hand made by Amma, the hands that made them were no less talented :-) Now quickly on to the recipe.

1. Cut three medium sized tomates (into 4 pieces each) and boil them in 3-4 glasses (250 ml each) of water. Let them boil till the tomatoes give away and start dissolving. Alternatively, you could pressure cook them.
2. Add one full table-spoon of rasam/sambhar powder and one full table-spoon of salt to the boiling tomatoes. Let the tomatoes boil, give them no respite :-)
3. Crackle three-fourth of a tea-spoon full of mustard in gingelly oil. Add finely chopped pieces of a green chilli to the crackling mustard.
4. Add the crackled mixture to the boiling rasam, and let it boil for another 5 minutes.
5. Squeeze two halves of a cut lemon onto the boiling rasam.
6. Garnish with strands of coriander leaves and stop heating. Close the vessel with a lid. This helps retain the aroma.

The whole process takes about 20 minutes. If you set it alongside pressure cooking rice, a wonderful meal is ready in about 30-40 minutes.