Thankyou! Dear Seetha, Thankyou very much for the feedback. I am very happy that you are all trying out the recipes, so promptly. Love & regards, Chithra.
Orange Rasam With Neem Flowers- Have you heard of this before? Neem flowers - 1 tbsp Orange - 1 big or 2 small Tomatoes - 3 Cooked tur dhal - 2 tbsp Ghee - 3 tsp Salt Fry in ½ tsp ghee & powder: Red chilli - 1-2 Pepper - ½ tsp Jeera - 1 tsp Hing powder - ½ tsp To temper: Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Udad dhal - 1 tsp Curry leaves - few Coriander leaves - few chopped Clean & wash neem flowers. If fresh ones are not available, use dry ones. Peel & remove orange petals. Extract the juice from half the petals. Remove the thin white skin from the other petals & cut into cubes. Liquidise tomatoes. In a vessel, heat ghee, temper as given & fry neem flowers a little till they wilt . Now mix the powder with orange juice& slowly add to seasoning. Then add tomato pulp, orange cubes, mashed dhal with 2 cups of water. Add salt. When it is about to boil, remove & garnish with coriander leaves.
Pepper-Jeera Rasam - To lighten the tummy after deepavali sweets! Dry roast & powder: Pepper - 2 tsp Tur dhal - ¼ cup Red chillies - 7,8 Gram dhal - 1 tsp Dhaniya - 1 tsp Jeera - 1 tsp Other ingredients: Tamarind paste - 2 tsp, if you are adding tomatoes (generally tomatoes are not added for this rasam) 1 tbsp if you are not adding tomatoes Hing powder - 1 tsp Cooked & mashed dhal - 1 tbsp Salt, haldi To temper in 1 tsp ghee: curry leaves Mustard seeds - ½ tsp This powder can be made & kept in the fridge to be used for 2,3 times. Mix tamarind paste, haldi, hing powder, 2 tsp ( or more ) of prepared powder, cooked dhal, salt & enough water to make up the desired quantity. Put in a vessel inside the pressure pan & cook for 1 whistle. Cool, open & temper. Some prefer not to add cooked dhal, tomatoes & haldi to this rasam. Then it will taste “ more medicinal” & it is your choice. <!--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /-->
Lemon-Jeeraka Rasam - Here lemon & ginger go hand in hand ! Powder together the following (don’t bother if the powder is not very fine) Thur dhal - 2 tbsp Jeera - 1/2 tbsp Red chillies - 4 Pepper - 2 tsp The above powder can be used 2, 3 times. Tomatoes - 2 Ginger - 1" Curry leaves Lime juice - 2 tsp (more or less) Salt, haldi To temper: Ghee - 1 tsp Mustard seeds - ½ tsp Boil crushed ginger with tomatoes & curry leaves with little water, liquidise & strain. To this pulp, add the made powder, salt, haldi & enough water to make up the required amount. Cook in a vessel inside a pressure pan for 1 whistle. Cool, open& temper. Add lime juice after sometime. Hing & coriander leaves are not added. Traditionally, the ingredients given first are "hand ground" fresh & used. Since now, we can't hand grind very small quantities, I am giving the recipe of the same ingredients powdered, to be used for 2-3 times.
with rasavadai Dear Recipe Rani, Wanted to ask you which rasam goes best with rasa vadais? I boiled and pureed 4 tomatoes with garlic and peppercorns. Then seasoned with mustard seeds and curry leaves, added the puree(diluted to the consistency needed), two tsp rasam powder and salt to taste. Garnished with coriander leaves. In this I put the vadais. Will try out the pineapple rasam soon! Have a good day! sharada
Sharada, are you tickling me ? Dear Sharada, Chennai already has a "menu Rani" & "Suvai arasi" - so that is a sample for the titles we already have! For rasa vadai, I suggest a spicy rasam with tamarind, pureed tomato & rasam powder. Even dhal water is optional, since vadais have dhal. Regards, Chithra.
Complimenting Dear Chithra, I was paying you a compliment for tickling and pandering to our tastebuds! This afternoon I'm going to try out more of your recipes. Thanks, Sharada
Dear chithvish, is there any substitute for neem flowers in the above rasam?coz i havent seen any Indian store selling neem flowers in U.S.....this rasam is so different i really want to try it out......what is the shelf life of neem flowers?i will be going to India soon...can i get dried neem flowers from india?how long can i use it?
Make it without neem flowers. Dear Vidhukumar, You can try this rasam without neem flowers now. Neem flowers (dried ones) are available in shops which sell herbal medicines in India. You have to pick out the dirt & clean it. Well dried, it preserves for a long time. Regards, Chithra.
Dried neem flowers. Just for an info., I always bring them from Chennai(my mother does the whole process) while coming to USA. It has been almost 2 yrs and they are quite fresh and tasty with rasam or with rice too.