Friday, May 22, 2009

Pachai Puli thanneer Rasam

Here comes another interesting rasam 'Pachai puli thanneer' rasam that means raw tamarind extract rasam . To make this rasam we won't need a stove.
May be this rasam could be a very old cuisine prepared by the travelers in India.
The other name of this rasam is 'vandikkaaran rasam', that means the rasam prepared by the bullock cart drivers:)
In those days , before the invention of motor vehicles, people were traveling in bullock carts from place to place. Some times they may take even a month to reach their destination. So they would take rest once in a week in a nearby city and would stock up some grocery items and food. The restaurants were rare to commons and the annachathiram (free meal place) would be scanty. So, in the mean time they would have prepared Puliyotharai, lemon rice, curd rice etc for the first three days and for the next coming period they need to cook , at least for two days.
The only way to sustain the travel was to cook the rice with the available wood and to fix up some easy side dish like rasam and thovaiyal (hand ground chutney). Thus comes the invention of this raw tamarind rasam.
May be we also find it very easy to fix a delicious simple dinner, if running late. Good for the summer too:)
I remember those days when my elder brother and myself voraciously consuming the rice without any hesitation with our mom's puli thanneer rasam:)



Ingredients:
Tamarind - size of a small key-lime
Shallot onion - 10
(or 1 red onion)
green chilly - 2
cumin seed - 1 tsp
curry leaf - 1 brig
water - 3 cups
salt - to taste

Method:
Extract the juice of tamarind by soaking it in water.
Finely chop the onion, green chilly, curry leaf and mix it with the tamarind water.
Add cumin seeds and salt.
Let them soak for an hour or we can use it immediately also.
Pachai puli rasam is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Pour over piping hot fully cooked rice along with any thogaiyal , vadagam or appalam as sides.

Note:
Prepare more quantity of rice than the usual amount and you will find the reason after tasting this rasam:)

19 comments:

Gita Jaishankar said...

Yummy rasam and great story dear :)

Pooja said...

Loved the story behind this rasam! Wow quick n easy to prepare! Will definitely come in handy.

Suparna said...

Hi Viki,
I love the read before moving on to the recipe here :) and yeah! this is my next for Tried and Tasted!! Thanks a lot of the handy quick to make recipe dear.At the end of every read U make me happy vikki, thanks so much...
TC

ARUNA said...

tht's a very nice story.....i was literally imagining the scenes...i feel like having rasam now, will make it!

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Oh when I make Rasam with shallots my inlaws make fun of me!!! But I love the Rasam with shallots... Looks great...

Anu said...

Super writeup! Nice to know to abt vandikaran rasam! Rombo simple... soup madhiri kudikalam pole... will try

kittymatti said...

woww..the pic looks great and easy recipe..

Priya Suresh said...

Loved the story..its quite easy and quick!

Vibaas said...

Never heard of this before. sounds yummy. i like any kind of rasam :)

Unknown said...

Great post! Diff way to make rasam!

Sujatha said...

nice and interesting rasam! totally new to me.. bookmarking..

Chitra said...

hi viki,this rasam is very new to me.i tried ur lemon rasam last week and it was good..thanks for the recipe!!i've bookmarked this also:0

Raks said...

new to me,thanks for sharing! could be made in a jiffy:)

Malar Gandhi said...

Rasam round up?? just kidding...

Love pacha puli rasam.

Parita said...

thats very quick and easy to prepare dear..i love the tangy taste of tamarind..will try this soon :)

Ammu said...

Quick & simple. Yummy:)

Chef Jeena said...

Tasty rasam recipe. :-)

Nithya Praveen said...

First time here...u have a nice blog out here.Rasam and the story is so good....wat makes it all the more interesting is the time it takes...quick and easy.Lovely one.Thanks for sharing:)

Indymoney said...

Its my dad's favorite. Thanks for reminding me :)

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