Tomato Charu

Get ready. Wash the tomatoes, green chillies, coriander leaves and curry leaves. Roughly chop the tomatoes, peel the garlic, slit the green chillies, chop the coriander leaves and break the dry red chilli. Crush the garlic, 1 tsp cumin and peppercorns together, and soak the tamarind in 100 ml water for 10 minutes until soft. Pat the curry leaves dry so they do not splutter in hot oil.

Add the tomatoes, crushed garlic, crushed cumin and pepper, green chillies and turmeric to a kadai. Mash and cook on medium flame for 5 to 6 minutes until the tomatoes soften and the raw garlic smell reduces.

TomatoGarlicCuminBlack PeppercornsGreen ChilliTurmeric Powder

Squeeze the soaked tamarind in its water and strain it. Add this tamarind water, 700 ml cooking water and salt to the kadai. Bring it to a boil on high flame for 5 minutes, then boil on medium flame for 10 minutes until the tomatoes break down and the raw tamarind smell goes.

TamarindWaterWaterSalt

Add the coriander leaves and simmer on low flame for 2 minutes until a thin layer of froth forms on top. Do not boil it for a long time after this.

Coriander Leaves

Heat the oil in a small kadai on medium flame for 1 minute until hot. Add the mustard seeds and cumin, followed by the dry red chilli, curry leaves and asafoetida. Fry for 1 minute until the mustard seeds crackle and the curry leaves turn crisp.

OilMustard SeedsCuminDry Red ChilliCurry leavesAsafoetida

Pour the tempering into the rasam and mix. Serve hot with rice.