Beetroot rasam

One day we had been to Sangeetha restaurant at Adyar (Chennai) to have lunch. There we ordered for Thali. ( Thali means plate, which has an assortment of curries, gravies and rice). As usual Rasam was one of the items in it. It looked like rasam in every respect with large pieces of tomatoes floating in an orange colour liquid. However, the flavour of the rasam on that day was little offbeat for me. (My husband did not have a problem). So, I summoned the waiter and enquired about its queer taste. For that he replied that it was paneer rasam. When he mentioned paneer, what came to my mind immediately was cottage cheese. So I dipped my finger into the rasam bowl and stirred it. But I did not find any paneer in it. That is when my husband enlightened me on this. He said that paneer means rose water in tamil and not cottage cheese as you think. So I was tasting rasam made out of rose water for the first time.

Then there is this purple rasam which few people know. This was introduced to me by my brother. One day my brother called me and asked if I knew the reciepe of a purple rasam from Udipi. I answered him in the negative and assured him to find about the same soon. So the next thing I did was to enquire about this purple rasam from a friend of mine who hails from Bangalore. She told me that the rasam I am talking about was beetroot rasam and is prepared like any other rasam.
Next day, I decided to make this purple rasam in my own way. Here is the recipe of this rasam.

Ingredients:

1. Grated beetroot -1cup
2. Tomato - 1(cut into fine pieces)
3. Tamarind pulp - 1/4cup 
4. Turmeric powder -1/2 tsp
5. Garlic-1tsp(finely chopped)
6. Rasam powder- 1tsp
7. Asafoetida -1/4 tsp
8. Sugar -1tsp
9. Mustard seeds - 1tsp
10. Chopped Coriander leaves - 1tsp
11. Salt to taste.
12. Oil- 1 tsp.

Method:

In a thick bottom pan cook the grated beetroot with 1/2cup of water. Once cooked, mix the tomato, tamarind pulp, salt, turmeric powder and sugar in it. Keep it aside.
In a frying pan, add 1 tsp of oil and temper the mustard seeds. When it crackles add the garlic and asafoetida powder. Fry for few seconds. Empty the contents into the tamarind mixture. Boil for few minutes. When it starts to thicken add the rasam powder and more water. check for consistency and bring to a boil. Switch of the flame and garnish with coriander leaves.