Milagu Rasam
Milagu rasam is the pepper rasam Tamil households make when someone is fighting a cold, thinner and hotter than the tomato kind and built entirely on black pepper cracked with cumin and garlic. There is no tomato in it. Tamarind carries the sourness, a spoonful of toor dal lends just enough body to coat a cup, and a mustard-seed tempering with curry leaf and a mild byadgi chile finishes it. Toast the pepper and cumin before you grind them, and keep the pot from boiling once the ground spice is in, or the broth turns bitter.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Toor dal, rinsed
- 1 1/2 tsp Black peppercorns
- 1 1/2 tsp Cumin seed
- 5 cloves Garlic, smashed
- 1 tbsp Tamarind paste
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric
- 15 Curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp Brown mustard seed
- 1 whole Byadgi chile, broken
- 1/4 tsp Asafoetida
- 3 tbsp Cilantro, chopped
Method
- Simmer the toor dal with the turmeric and 1.5 cups (360 ml) water until completely soft, about 25 minutes, then whisk it loose. Milagu rasam is meant to be thin and drinkable, so the dal is here only to lend the broth a faint body, not to make it a dal.
- Meanwhile, dry-toast the black pepper and cumin in a small pan over medium heat until fragrant, about 90 seconds, then pound them with 2 of the garlic cloves into a coarse paste. Toasting the whole pepper and cumin before grinding is the difference between rasam that smells alive and rasam that tastes flat.
- Stir the tamarind paste into 2 cups (480 ml) water until it dissolves, then bring it to a simmer with the remaining smashed garlic and boil for 5 minutes, so the tamarind loses its raw sharpness and turns round.
- Add the whisked dal and the pepper-cumin paste and bring the pot just to the edge of a boil, then pull it off the heat. Rasam should never hard-boil once the ground spice is in, which turns it bitter and dull.
- For the tempering, heat a small dry pan, pop the mustard seeds until they jump, then add the broken byadgi chile, curry leaves, and asafoetida with a splash of water and swirl for a few seconds until the leaves crackle. Pour it over the rasam and cover at once to trap the aroma.
- Finish with the cilantro and serve hot in cups to sip, or ladled over brown rice. The pepper heat is the whole point of milagu rasam, so let it lead.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 90 calories, 5 g protein, 3 g fiber, 45 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
