Pepper Rasam

This is a yummy dish for a cold evening or on a rainy day. It is also the vegetarian equivalent of chicken soup for handling a cold :-)

Ingredients:
1 lemon sized ball of tamarind, soaked and juice extracted
1 tsp each of chana dal, udad dal, black pepper corns, dhaniya, jeera, half a dry red chilli dry roasted and ground to a fine powder
1 tomato, chopped into 1" pieces
2 tbps coriander leaves, chopped finely
Salt to taste
1 tsp each of ghee, jeera, mustard and asafoetida powder

Method:
1. Add one glass of water to the tamarind paste
2. Add the chopped tomatoes, salt to taste and enough of the roasted and ground spices to make it spicy enough to tickle the tongue :-)
3. Put it in low heat and boil it for 10 mins. Add chopped coriander leaves
4. Remove from fire. Heat the ghee, add the mustard and when it splatters, add jeera and asafoetida. Remove from flame and pour this into the piping hot rasam
5. Serve with hot rice and any dry vegetable like aloo or bhindi