Tamilnadu Meals anyone?

Last week, ministers from our church were visiting and having dinner with us. I decided to go with a complete south Indian menu including idli and sambar and stuff.

Sure enough, I did not have the patience or infrastructure to assemble the spread shown for everyone. I took the pleasure to put together one plate for picture and memories sakes. All the stuff is home made from scratch.  Oh yeah! The green mass is Mint Thuvayal and gravy is chicken. All right, all right – the mango pickle is mother made from Chennai and gulab jamun, courtesy Mahalakshmi Sweets of Mysore.  Papad is store bought. But rest came out of this kitchen. P asked me to document the Sambar recipe for quick reference. Maybe someday, K will read this and try. This recipe is a keeper for simplicity and speed, and taste of course. It will not score high on traditional preparation methodology. The sambar has been heartily appreciated by my mother, whose compliments do not come by often. She does not dish that out easily.

Oil – 3 tsps

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Urad dhal – 1 tsp

Channa dhal – 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp

Curry leaves – a sprig

Hing – 2 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Green chilies - 2

Garlic – 4 pods, crushed (hand/stone crushed releases the most flavor)

Onion – 1 large

Tomato – 1 large

Vegetable mix – 2 or 3 cups (I go with 3 since that’s one way to include veggies for kids)

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Sambar powder – 3 tsps

Toor dhal – 1 cup

Tamarind water – ½ cup, medium sourness

Coriander leaves – for garnish

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Add the mustard seeds, urad dhal, channa dhal, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and temper. Add in the hing and wait till the dhals turn a little golden. Next the green chillies and garlic, give a fry. Then add the chopped onions and fry them till translucent. Once the onions are fried well, add tomatoes and salt. Fry for about 5 minutes till you see the tomato breaking down in the salt. Next add the chopped vegetables (adding white radish is a must to get a good aroma from sambar), adding white pumpkin or drumsticks or a potato will also give greater flavor and aroma. I usually add a mix of carrots, beans, brinjal and white radish – keeping the kids in mind. I also use hing and garlic quite a bit to my cooking in general, to get them to digest the food. 

Now add the turmeric, sambar powder and fry well. Next will be the toor dhal along with water and turmeric powder. I usually do 5 times water for 1 cup dhal in sambar and give several whistles in the cooker for the dhal to completely breakdown. I prefer the vegetables to get cooked till they are soft as opposed to having a crunch. One pot child friendly sambar ready.