Preparations:

Preparing the Dal:

Take dal in a bowl and wash it. Add water to the washed dal and place this bowl in a pressure cooker and cook. When pressure develops in the pressure cooker, cook on low flame for 15 minutes. Remove the cooked dal from the cooker when the cooker cools down naturally. Take a whisker and whisk the dal to make it smooth. Keep this dal aside.

Preparing Rasam Powder:

Ingredients:

• Coriander Seeds – 1/4Cup
• Bengal Gram – 3tsps
• Red Chilies – 2 (Break each into 2 pieces)
• Turmeric Powder – 1/4tsp
• Asafoetida - A Big Pinch

Heat a pan and add Bengal gram, coriander seeds and red chili pieces. Fry on low flame. Keep stirring the ingredients while frying till the gram starts changing color and coriander seeds become crisp. Take these fried ingredients into a dry mixie jar. Add asafoetida and turmeric powder to the fried ingredients and powder them. The powder should be fine with a nice aroma. Store this powder in an air tight dry bottle.

Other Preparations:

Take tamarind in a microwave safe bowl and add water to it. Place this bowl in a microwave oven and cook on high power for one minute. Cool the cooked tamarind and grind it to a fine paste adding some more water if required.

Wash the tomatoes and chop them into small pieces. Take these tomato pieces into a microwave safe bowl. Place this bowl in a microwave oven and cover it partially. Cook the tomatoes on high power for 2 minutes.

Wash and clean the coriander. Chop the washed coriander and keep it aside for garnishing.

Method:

Take water in a deep bowl and add cooked tomato pieces and tamarind paste. Mix well and place this bowl on heat and cook on low flame. Add 3 teaspoons of prepared rasam powder and mix well. We need to boil this rasam. Meanwhile, prepare the black pepper and cumin powder the following way:

Heat a pan and add ghee (1tsp) to it. When ghee is hot add the cumin seeds followed by black pepper. Fry for few seconds till the cumin splutters. Remove the fried cumin and black pepper from the ghee. Powder the fried ingredients in a mortar & pestle. Store this powder in a closed state to retain the nice aroma.

Observe that the rasam is boiling — now add the cooked dal and required amount of salt and mix well. Allow the rasam to boil for few more seconds and switch off the flame.

Take the ghee in which we have fried cumin and pepper in a pan and heat it. When ghee is hot add the mustard seeds and fry till they crackle. Add a pinch of asafoetida and mix well. Add this seasoning to the boiling rasam and immediately cover the vessel to retain the aroma of the fried seasoning. After one minute remove the lid and add the cumin-pepper powder and mix well. Again cover the vessel for a minute. Now the Kalyana Rasam is ready. Transfer the contents to a serving bowl and offer.  While offering remember to stir from the bottom of the vessel because the dal would have sedimented on the bottom of the vessel.

Points to Notice:

Krishna Prasadam recipes are made with fewer ingredients yet they are very tasty. Basically the taste of the recipe is of the vegetable and the spices used in the preparations.

Prepare this Kalyana Rasam and offer it.