Rasam, a southern Indian recipe very similar to a light soup

Rasam (an Indian soup)

Rasam is like a light soup. A warm cup is perfect if you have a cold or an itchy throat. Rasam also improves appetite. There are many types of rasams I have learned from my mom. Here is a simple one.

Pointer 1: This can serve as a meal starter.
Pointer 2: Serve it as hot as you would any soup.

Ingredients:

* 2 cups water
* 2 tsps. salt
* 1 medium sized tomato
* 1 Tbsp. tamarind paste^ or,
* Soak a half lemon-sized fresh tamarind in water and use the juice of the tamarind^
* 1/2 tsp. crushed black pepper
* 1/4 tsp. crushed cumin seeds
* 2 cloves crushed garlic
* 1/4 tsp. mustard seeds for garnish
* 1/2 tsp ghee (clarified butter)
* 1 tsp. of curry leaves (optional)

Method:
Add all of the above ingredients until garlic to a pot with 2 cups of water. Bring the whole mixture to a boil for about 5 minutes. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes. Make sure that the liquid does not dry up. If it reduces too much in quantity over the course of boiling, you may add some water and continue simmering. Finally add, a 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer in low heat for about 5 minutes. You may garnish it with 1tsp. of the clarified butter and spurted mustard seeds. Top it off with some fresh curry leaves if available. This should be enough for a 3-cup serving.

^ Please contact me for any of these ingredients or utensils.