Pineapple Rasam

The weather in Amsterdam has been very bad past week. Cloudy grey skies, chilly winds and continuous drizzling has left me craving for some warm food. And what’s better than some hot rice and rasam with some spicy stir fry and pappadams. Mmm…that’s what I call comfort food. And that’s exactly what I made yesterday for lunch.

The pineapple rasam is a nice variation from the regular rasams. It is sweet, sour and spicy. I have had this rasam mostly in marriage feasts and I love it. I searched for a lot of recipes and after many trials I found my own version, which is just like the ones you eat in the feasts. So go ahead and try it, I’m sure you will love it.

Serves - 4

What you’ll need

1. Pineapple – 1.5 cups, finely chopped (u can use upto 2 cups)
2. Toor Dal – 2 heaped tbsp, cooked and mashed
3. Tomato – 2 Medium sized
4. Tamarind – marble sized ball
5. Rasam Powder – 1.5 tbsp
6. Asafoetida – a generous pinch
7. Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp
8. Salt to taste
9. Coriander Leaves and Curry Leaves for garnish

Method

1. Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for few minutes.
2. Extract the tamarind juice and discard the fibre.
3. Grind one tomato and add to the tamarind extract.
4. Add turmeric powder, asafoetida, rasam powder and salt, mix well.
5. Add another cup of water and bring to boil. Let this boil for 5 to 6 minutes.
6. Grind half of the pineapple and add to the boiling mixture.
7. In the meanwhile chop the other tomato.
8. Saute the remaining chopped pineapple and chopped tomato, for a 3 to 4 minutes.
9. Add this also to the boiling mixture.
10. Let everything boil for another 2 to 3 minutes.
11. Now mix the cooked dal with 1 to 1.5 cups of water and add to the boiling mixture.
12. Reduce the flame to low, add chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves and simmer till the mixture starts frothing.
13. Remove from flame.
14. Heat a small frying pan, with ghee, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Pour this over the rasam.

Serve hot with plain rice and a stir fry and some pappadams.

Note:

You can omit the tamarind and add lemon juice instead at the end, after removing from heat.

Make use of a nice ripe pineapple. A pineapple that is sweet and tangy would be ideal for this rasam.

You can add a slit green chilly if you want to make the rasam spicier.