Rasam Powder – How To Make Udupi Style

Udupi style rasam powder recipe with step by step photos and video. This is the most requested recipe by my blog readers. We call this as sarina pudi in Kannada. This rasam powder recipe is vegan and gluten-free. A typical homemade condiment and must have masala powder in every kitchen of coastal Karnataka.

Tomato rasam or saru (as we call in Kannada language) is a tangy lentil spicy tomato soup. Rasam is a part of south Indian cuisine served with hot rice and ghee. Rasam powder gives flavour and spice to rasam. Preparing rasam powder at home takes very less time and free of harmful preservative.

Indian kitchen is treasure of many spice blends like garam masala, goda masala, sambar powder, bisibele bath powder, vangi bath powder, palya powder, different variety of chutney pudi, panch phoran masala, achari masala, dhansak masala, chaat masala.

RASAM POWDER IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF SOUTH INDIAN CUISINE.

Every region in south of India has its own spice blend for rasam powder, but the basic spices remain the same with few addition or deletion.

South Canara region of Karnataka by itself has a diverse group of community which follows different traditional and modified rasam powder recipes. Every family in this part of the region follows its ancestral way of making rasam powder.

Across the coastal Karnataka, most of the rasam recipes do not use black pepper as compared to other states of South India.

The recipe which I am giving here is the ones that has been followed by our family ancestor’s native to Udupi district from Karnataka. Before marriage I never knew the art of making tomato rasam using rasam powder.

After I was married to a family with cooking background as my father-in-law was a head cook and had his own cooking business. This is how I started loving the flavour of freshly ground rasam powder. On a lighter note, I call my family “rasam family”. They can drink and eat rasam with rice on any given day.

Every three days a week we prepare tomato rasam at home. The use of freshly ground powder in tomato rasam takes it to next level with kitchen smelling so aromatic.

VARIETY OF RED CHILIES USED TO PREPARE RASAM POWDER

Clean, moisture free, fresh pest free red chilies should be used in preparing the Udupi style rasam powder. These red chilies should be sun-dried for 2 to 3 hours.

The benefits of sun drying are it helps to remove any little moisture in red chilies and helps in quick frying process.

The commonly used red chilies are bydagi variety. This variety is mildly spice and you can adjust the numbers as per your preference.

In this recipe I have used only bydagi variety which are mildly spicy so the rasam powder is not too spicy kind of condiment. Typically, in coastal Karnataka bydagi red chilies are used commonly. So, this is also used in Udupi style rasam powder.

The colour of the rasam powder mainly depends on the variety of red chilies. The frying of red chilies in coconut oil also imparts colour to the rasam powder.

If you want to increase the level of spiciness add more chilies. The alternative to increase the spice or hot level is by using very few guntur red chilies (these are spicy red chilly variety) with the basic bydagi chilies.

Before frying, red chilies can be broken into two halves, this makes easy powdering of masala in the blender.

WHICH OIL TO BE USED IN UDUPI STYLE RASAM POWDER RECIPE?

This is the main subject of discussion. The oil used here imparts flavour to Udupi style rasam. The freshness and shelf life of rasam powder depends solely on the quality of oil.

The oil used in the recipe is coconut oil. If you are not comfortable with the flavour of coconut oil, then you can change to any refined oil. But coconut oil is highly recommended to get the authentic flavour in Udupi style rasam powder.

If refined oil is used other than coconut oil, then I recommend use slightly lesser in quantity.

Coconut oil should be fresh, in villages coconut oil is freshly extracted from dry coconut and used while preparing this rasam powder. Here I have used a freshly brought coconut oil. Check for the viability and taste of coconut oil before using it.

If the coconut oil is spoilt or about to be spoiling, then the whole process of preparing rasam powder will be a complete waste.

If you find the quantity of coconut oil used in the recipe is slightly more, then this can be reduced by a tablespoon. But roasting the spices in coconut oil is an important step, as this gives the color and aroma to the rasam powder.

WHICH ARE THE IMPORTANT SPICES USED IN RASAM POWDER RECIPE?          

The first and foremost important step in preparing any spice blend is to clean and check for any dust or bugs in the spices.

In this recipe you require basic spices methi seeds or menthya, cumin or jeera, coriander seeds or sabut dhania along with coconut oil and red chilies.