Rasa vadai

I have the recipe for an unusual rasam in one of the cookbooks. It was labelled 5 paruppu rasam. The author wrote that this is more or less like Mysore rasam. That piqued great interest in me. But LO! I lacked two of the dhals she had suggested.

However, I tried it with the three dhals I had.Then on a whim I added the egyptian white beans (because the recipe has white beans in it) and black eye beans ( because the author had a similar bean added).

Trust me, it was more than unusual; tasted delicious. I could simply drink like soup. The rasam was thick enough to drop vadais in it, making an excellent base for rasavadais. I made soya, urad combined vadai and dropped them in this rasam. The vadais were adapted from one supplement of Kumudham Sinegithy magazine compiled by Krithika Radhakrishnan.

The recipe for soya - urad vadai makes 15 vadais and the rasam will yield about 1 litre.

My husband was around to take pictures and he couldn't help show off his Lego -Blue hull Maersk liner.

Soya-urad vadai:

Ingredients:

White soya 1/2 cup

Whole white urad dhal 1/2 cup

Black pepper corns/ green chillies adjust as per taste.

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying.

Soak the soya for about 6 hours.

Wash the urad dhal and soak just for an hour.

Drain the soya and grind to a smooth paste adding just enough water. While soya is threefourths done add drained urad dhal and grind the combined dhals to a very smooth fluffy batter with as less water as possible.

Add the chillies and salt.

Heat oil and deep fry the above. Drain on absorbent paper. Then when still hot drop them in hot rasam.

Recipe for 5 paruppu rasam:

Ingredients:

Thuvar dhal 1/4th of a cup

Channa dhal 3 table spoons

Horse gram 3 table spoons

Black eye beans 2 table spoons

Egyptian white beans 1 table spoon

Tamrind 1big lemon size ball

Salt to taste.

Dry roast and grind to a powder:

Coriander seeds 1 tablespoon

Black pepper corns 8 whole

Channa dhal 1 1/2 teaspoon

Dry red chillies 5 pieces

Other ingredients:

Asafoetida 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon

For tempering:

Ghee 1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon

1 Green chilli slit

For garnish:

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves.

Soak black eye beans and the white beans overnight.

Wash the three dhals clean and pressure cook them until they are very soft and mash vey smooth. Add some more water and keep aside.

Pressure cook the soaked beans, Mash and add to the above mashed dhals.

Grind the ingredients for the powder and keep ready while the dhals are being cooked.

Soak the tamarind and extract pulp thoroughly.

Bring tamarind extract to a boil and simmer for atleast 10 minutes adding salt, turmeric powder and asafoetida.

When the raw taste has subsided, add the mashed dhals and the prepared powder. Allow to simmer for 5 minutes.

Prepare the tempering and add to the rasam. Chop the curry leaves and coriander leaves. Drop them in the rasam.

Keep the rasam hot while you are deep frying the vadas. Once the oil has drained on the absorbent tissue, drop the vadas into the rasam. The quantities given are complementing. If you want more rasam or do not desire all vadas soaked, adjust accordingly.

I would love to send these rasavadais to MLLA 14 hosted by Susan.