Horse Gram/ Kollu Rasam

Spring break starts from tomorrow for my son. It is the first break after the Christmas Holiday. He is very excited for the extra hours of sleep :)  He only gets two breaks in one school year. Because of weather, there is no snow to interrupt the school to get the extra day off. But as a parent, it is time to review subjects for the State Exam with him.

Last week, he was down with cold and cough. During the cold season, I often make this Kollu/Horse gram rasam. It works like medicine; a cup of hot rasam will clear the stuffy nose and the cough. He has no problem with spices and drinks like soup. I could be mixed with rice and served for kids.

Kollu/horse gram is less known beans with plenty of medicinal values. It comes in different shades: light green, slightly reddish brown and black. The beans are consumed by human and horse. You should give a plenty of time to soak the beans to reduce the cooking time. It is not often given to kids apart for clearing a bad cold and cough. Because,it is known for weight loss in Tamil Nadu, only consumed by adults weekly once. Personally this one works for the cold for us cannot confirm the weight loss, otherwise, I would have included Horse gram to 365 Days!

If you cannot tolerate the heat I would strongly suggest using only cumin and black pepper powder for the Rasam powder. If you serve with steamed rice- the rasam powder mentioned below works well.

Rasam powder

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Ingredients: Black Pepper: 1 tsp Cumin: 1/2 tsp Coriander seeds: 2 tsp Toor dhal: 1/2 tsp One Red chilli (used the round one- less spice) Hing (block): A small piece (Can be omitted) - Replace with powder while seasoning the rasam The first two ingredients are the key essentials (can be pounded coarsely and used alone for making rasam). I personally don't make big batch, every other day- i use my spice mixer to ground it. It yield about 1 and 1/2 tbsp.   Method: Roast all together and ground coarsely.

Horse Gram/ Kollu Rasam

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Ingredients: Horse Gram: 3 tbsp Tamarind: a small key lime size - or lemon size if you are in India Medium ripe tomato-one Rasam powder: 1 1/2 tbsp Turmeric: 1/4 tsp Salt: to taste Seasoning: Garlic pods: 2 or 3 crushed slightly  One broken red chillies Mustard seeds: 1 tsp Methi/fennugreek: 1/2 tsp Curry leaves: few fresh one Cilantro: few fresh torn into pieces (to use at the end) Hing: a dash Oil or Ghee: 1 1/2 tsp Method: First soak* the horse gram overnight, rinse it and pressure cook with 2 cups of water until 4 whistles. Ground the cooked beans and at the end - add the tomato and pulse it. Add a cup of water in tamarind and microwave a minutes. Cool and extract the pulp only. Now in a bowl add the dhal+ tomato+ Rasam powder and turmeric add little quantity of tamarind extract. Adjust the salt and tamarind level. If you feel is less tangy, add the rest of tamarind. Add 1/2 cup of water , less or more to adjust the rasam and keep in stove. When the bubble starts foaming remove from the stove Do the seasoning. Heat oil, add the hing, followed by red chillies, mustard and fennugreek, when they splutter, add the garlic and curry leaves. Keep for a few seconds and throw in the bubbling Hot Rasam. Garnish with cilantro (must) *If you don't have time to soak overnight- soak an hour the beans and ground it into coarse paste (use it as per recipe)

Important Note or even rules given by elders:
Rasam should be watery and clear like soup.
U should never let the rasam boil- when the bubbles form on top remove from heat.
Add the cilantro at the end, keep slightly close, fully covering the pot will let the greens change color.
Always try to do a small amount - because reheating Rasam will loose the taste.
It is not always possible to do so - store the leftover rasam in non-reactive bowl. tamarind is low acidity food which reacts overtime.
Rasam always depends of someone tastes buds. Though we make regularly- the taste differs each and every day.
Wish my readers a Happy Holy Week!