Pesara kattu (moongdal rasam)

Pesara kattu (split lentils rasam)  is my grand mother's recipe. I still remember she making this for dinners, served with white rice and ghee.  I am posting this recipe on behalf of my grand mother. 


Ingredients:


One cup moongdal / pesara pappu (in telugu) 
Red chillies 3
Green chillies 2
Mustard seeds - one teaspoon
Cumin seeds- one teaspoon
turmeric (half teaspoon)
Ginger (one table spoon chopped into small pieces)
Salt to taste
Water (3 cups)
oil / ghee ( 0ne tablespoon)
asafoetida (hing) one pinch
curry leaves 5 -6 
coriander (finely chopped one teaspoon)
lime juice (one table spoon)


Method of preparation:
Pressure cook one cup of moong dal with 2 cups of water ,  split green chillies and half a tablespoon of chopped ginger ( two  pressure release cycles- whistles). Do not over cook it becomes mushy as this dal cooks really fast unlike the other  dals. Set the cooker aside, allow it to cool down. Then add the remaining one cup of water to make the texture loose as we are calling it as rasam.  Add salt and turmeric to the cooked dal and allow it to boil for at least 15 minutes.  In the meanwhile take a small utensil, heat one tablespoon of oil / ghee add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves and remaining ginger to it, allow it to sizzle then add all these spices to the boiling dal mix it well and cut off the stove after 5  minutes add lime juice to it (make sure you add it once the dish is off the flame, otherwise there are chances to make the rasam bitter), add fresh coriander and now serve pesara kattu  with rice! 


I recommend making pesara kattu for dinners! 
And Of  course save this recipe for the rainy day!!!