Raju Mother's Jamini Rasam

Ingredients:

Coconut Milk -1 can
Or Fresh Coconut milk -2 cups
Toor Dal -1 1/2cup
Finely chopped Onion-1cup
Turmeric-1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds -2 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
Finely chopped garlic-1Tbsp.
Urad dal - 1tsp
Curry leaves-few
Black peppers- 12
Ginger- 1 1/2 in. piece
Dry red peppers-5
Limes-2
Ghee (Clarified butter)-1 Tbsp.
Salt-1 tsp or as per taste.

Preparation:

Cook Toor dal with water in 3qt. pot, takeout top soup like liquid, in bowl when dal half cooked. Add more water cook dal and takeout the liquid. Like this collect all the essence of dal until it completly cooks. Total liquid should be atleast 3-4 cups.

Take coriander seeds, 1tsp cumin seeds, dry chillies, Black peppers and ginger grind it together, with little water. Now take the collected dal liquid in pot, add finely chopped onions and above grounded paste, mix well and cook on medium high heat until onions are soft. Add turmeric and salt while onions are cooking. Add coconut milk slowly while mixing, and cook until rasam comes to boiling point. Should not over boil the coconut milk. Add lime juice from 1 or 2 limes depend on your taste at end. Heat 1Tbsp. of Ghee, add urad dal,Mustard seeds, jeera, chopped garlic and curry leaves and season the Rasam. Serve with Rice. Can be served as soup also.

Note: After taking all the liquid from the dal, left over dry cooked dal can be modified as curry.
Heat 1Tbsp. oil in pan add 1-2 dry chillies, 1tsp urad dal, 1tsp mustard seeds, and when they splatter add 2 pinches of Hing (Asafoetida) and curry leaves, mix well and cook for 2-3 minutes
and serve with Rice.