GOOSEBERRY RASAM

08.07.2020: I sent my mother the colourful picture of ingredients for  rasam and she promptly replied saying “you’re making rasam!” She has been trying to get me to make ‘Bajico’ for Skip, a term coined by him for a concoction my mother makes to cure runny noses and sore throats, with basil, ginger, clove and honey.  I’ve never been fond of rasam or kashaya (herbal drink) and I drink only when I’m forced to. Now, the times they are a-changin’ and I make it a point to cook with and eat immunity boosting foods.

I usually buy a handful of gooseberries once a month. While Skip seems to enjoy eating them raw, I can’t help crinkling my face in disgust while chewing them. Besides being rich in other nutrients, gooseberries are high in antioxidants and a good source of Vitamin C which help boost your immunity.  I used to love eating the Gooseberry Muraba that my grandmother would prepare (gooseberries cooked in sugar syrup). She’d have a bottle packed for me every time my parents visited her at Mysore. I’d pick a wrinkled gooseberry dripping with the sugary syrup, pop it into my mouth, chew on the sweet flesh and then keep rolling the seed inside my mouth until I found an ideal target to send the seed flying at. (Target usually being Sky).

I had a box of gooseberries lying in the fridge when I came across the recipe for Gooseberry Rasam by Anju Ganapathy Aunty. Radha was surprised too when she saw me make Rasam until I took my phone out to click pictures.

You may have this Rasam with rice or have it plain. It has a slight bitter aftertaste of the gooseberry which is negligible while having with rice. It’s a great recipe to incorporate gooseberry into your diet and simple to make. You may adjust the quantity of the ingredients to suit your taste.

GOOSEBERRY RASAM

Ingredients:

Gooseberry – 6

Salt – as per taste

Ginger - 1 inch

Water – 3 ½ cups

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Black peppercorns (crushed) – 1 tsp

Jaggery – 1 tbsp

Garlic (crushed) - 1 tbsp

Rasam powder – 1 tsp 

For tempering

Ghee- 1 tbsp

Oil – ½ tbsp

Asafoetida (hing) – a pinch

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Curry leaves – 8-10  

Method:

1.  Deseed the gooseberries and chop it into tiny bits. Blend the gooseberry with ginger and a teaspoon of salt till it is ground well.

2.      Transfer contents to a pan. Add water and bring to a boil.

3.      Reduce the flame and let the contents simmer for 5 minutes.

4.     Add the cumin seeds, pepper, jaggery, garlic and rasam powder. Stir well and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat.

5.      For the tempering: In a separate pan, add ghee and oil, add a pinch of asafoetida, add the mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add curry leaves. Once the leaves begin to curl, turn off the heat and pour the contents into the Rasam.

6.      Done.

Recipe Notes:

·       Be careful while tempering the Rasam, when hot oil is added to the Rasam, it will splutter.