Solai's True Chettinad kitchen

This recipe is the one given by one of my neighbors called Sathya. My children just love the rasam made by her. So I follow this recipe and make rasam as per her recipe. Once you get addicted to the taste of this rasam, you don’t need any other gravy for lunch. This week I will blog the rasam recipe .Any cup of your choice can be used for measurement

Ingredients

Chillies-3 cups

Coriander seeds-4 cups
Pepper-1 cup
Cumin seeds-1 cup
Fenugreek seeds-1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds-1 teaspoon
Urudh dhal- 1 teaspoon
Thoor dhal- ½ table spoon
Bengal gram -½ table spoon
Asafetida-little

Procedure
Dry the chilies and coriander in the sun if possible.
Dry roast the coriander in low fire 2 cups at a time for 5 minutes or till you get the nice flavor of the coriander seeds.
Roast the chilies in little oil.
Roast all the dhal in ½ teaspoon ghee.
Separately roast the fenugreek and mustard.
When cold grind all to a smooth powder and store in an air tight container.
The day you are grinding this powder the entire house will be filled with the rasam powder flavour.

For the last two months I was in chettinad in my mothers house to take care of it since my parents were abroad on a vacation (The house is converted into a heritage home. if you want to have a look at my house ref http://www.chettinadumansion.com/ ).For many years I have never stayed there so long as we also will be touring during the vacations. The houses in chettinad as many know will be very huge (It will extend to one full street).The house will be common for all the brothers of a generation and their children that follow. Each family will have a separate kitchen in the fourth courtyard. There are four such kitchens in my mom’s house too. My periyamma (Dad’s brother’s wife) who cooks deliciously (the best so far I know) was also there this time. She usually stays abroad with her son. I had the golden opportunity of getting the rarest recipes from her this time. I prepared many and will share with you in my future blogs. I always feel that the idly milagai podi recipe that I follow is short of something. So I asked her for the recipe. At the age of 76 she was right behind me till I grinded the podi. It was awesome.
Ingredients
Red chilies (long one)-3 cups (any cup)
Garlic-7 pods (those who dont like this flavour can avoid this)
Asafetida-A small piece (1 teaspoon powder)
Curry leaves-handful
Urudh dhal-1 cup
Thoor dhal-1/2 cup
Salt-1 table spoon (Check for taste)
Procedure
Keep the kadai in the stove. Add 2 teaspoons gingili oil. Fry the garlic pieces in medium fire till they turn golden brown. If asafetida piece is used fry that also in the same oil after garlic. Take them out from the oil. If oil is less add a teaspoon more oil. Now roast the urudh dhal along with curry leaves till the dhal gets little red .After this the same way roast the thoor dhal also. Fry the chili also in little oil in medium fire till it gets roasted.If you have microwave then you can get away with the difficulty of frying it in the kadai.Immediately after putting it in the oil in the kadai,transfer it to a microwavable plate and microwave for 2 minutes.If crystal salt is used put that also in the kadai for a minute without oil. After all these cool first grind the chilies then add garlic then asafetida then urudh dhal and curry leaves and finally thoor dhal and salt .Grind to the consistency you like. Store it in an air tight container. For a small family this measurement will be enough for a month or two.