My New Dishes, Rasam, & Maheswari's Vendaikkai Puzhicurry

My bf went to India recently, and brought me back these dishes and also a couple of cookbooks. Needless to say, I was REALLY happy :) The middle dish contains a recipe from Maheswari's Beyond The Usual that my daughter and I REALLY loved!!! The leftmost dish contains an Onion Rasam recipe from Chandra Padmanabhan's Southern Spice, which I am going to share here :)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup pigeon peas
• small marble size ball of tamarind (marble I know ;)
• 1 medium tomato, quartered
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoon rasam powder
• 1/2 teaspoon asafoetida powder
• 2 tablespoons finely sliced onion
• 1 tablespoon dessicated coconut
• salt, to taste

To Temper:

• 2 teaspoons ghee
• 1 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 dry, red chili, halved
• 1 sprig curry leaves

Method:

1. Wash dal and drain. Place in pressure cooker with 1 cup water and cook under pressure for 5 minutes.
2. Add more water to dal and strain to make 1 1/2 cups of dal water. Set aside.
3. Soak tamarind in 1 cup water for 10 minutes. Extract juice and discard pulp.
4. Combine tamarind juice, tomato, spice powders, onion, coconut, and salt in pan. Place over high heat and bring to boil.
5. Lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes till onion is tender and the raw aroma of tamarind disappears.
6. Add dal water and bring to boil. When rasam begins to froth, remove from heat.
7. Heat ghee for temering in a small pan over moderate heat and add remaining ingredients for tempering. When mustard seeds start sputtering, stir contents of pan into rasam.
8. Garnish with coriander leaves, and enjoy!