Coconut milk rasam: A Kerala delicacy with a unique flavour

HENSHA Deeban Poorni is a successful model, TV and film actress. Her latest TV serial is titled Neethane En Ponvasantham. She lost her father when she young and was sent to her grandparents’ house in Thiruvottiyur. Her education was interrupted after Class 10 as she had to work to support the family. From the age of seven, she started cooking for herself and her grandparents as her grandmother never kept well. Her cooking endeavours started on a rusty kerosene stove, then graduated to firewood and by the time she was 12, it was the gas stove. Her passion for food started early — she loves simple food like kanji with chinna vengayam and chillies, murungakkai sambar and potato fry. But Hensha’s most favourite dishes are biryanis and different rasams of south India. Hensha cooks for her set members and meticulously packs breakfast, lunch and evening snacks for all, but she never waits for anyone if she is hungry. Her comfort food is rasam, especially, the Kerala style coconut milk rasam made in the Nair Mess in Chennai.

Rasam is originated in Madurai during the Pandya kingdom. It is known to have medicinal effectiveness and called a digestive beverage. Tamarind is the base of rasam with lots of pepper, cumin, garlic, coriander, turmeric, asafoetida, curry leaves and mustard. The basic rasam has evolved into fancier ones over time, especially, as it travelled to different shores like Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Each state added or changed it according to what was locally grown or popular, be it lemons, green chillies or coconut milk. It is charu in Telugu, saaru in Kannada and rasam in Tamil derived from the Sanskrit word ‘rasa’ meaning essence of the juice. The unique flavour of the Kerala rasam comes from the spices that are roasted in coconut oil. Sometimes, fresh coconut milk is also added for flavour. Today, Hensha is sharing her all-time favourite Kerala rasam recipe. The flavour of coconut milk cooked with tomato and spices roasted in coconut oil and tempered with ghee gives a divine taste. Any stir-fry vegetable poriyal is a perfect combination for this rasam.