Garlic rasam from Sanjeev Kapoor's site

GARLIC RASAM

A Tasty south Indian preparation using tamarind pulp and garlic with combination of spices.

Preparation Time : 20-25 minutes

Cooking Time : 25-30 minutes

Servings : 4

Ingredients:

Garlic	15-20 cloves
Split pigeon pea (toor dal/arhar dal), soaked	3 tablespoons
Pure ghee	2 tablespoons
Tamarind	1/2 lemon sized ball
Salt	To taste
Asafoetida	¼ teaspoon
For Rasam Powder:
Cumin seeds	3/4 teaspoon
Black peppercorns	6-8
Whole dry red chillies	4
Coriander seeds	1 tablespoon
Split Bengal gram (chana dal)	1 teaspoon
Coconut, scraped	1 teaspoon
Tempering
Mustard seeds	1/2 teaspoon
Whole dry red chillies	2
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Cooking steps:

Peel garlic and sauté in about half tablespoon of ghee for a minute. Remove and keep aside.

Boil daal in one cup of water, covered, till soft. Mash and reserve along with the water.

Soak tamarind in one cup of warm water, remove the pulp, strain and reserve.

Heat one tablespoon ghee and fry the rasam powder ingredients to a light brown, cool and pound to a powder.

Add three more cups of water to the reserved tamarind stock and boil it with salt, asafoetida and the masala powder for five minutes or till the tangy tamarind smell goes away.

Add garlic and continue to simmer. Add mashed daal. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

Heat the remaining ghee and temper with mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves and add to the rasam. Cover immediately to trap the flavours and serve piping hot.