Sambar...for tongue,body and soul!

For craving or comfort, or plain hunger...

Sambar, spicy and sizzling

A book that is not about food, and has no pix..can that make you crave for a dish, enough to think of nothing else? Well that is just  the effect that a book I read recently   had on me. Titled “Chennaivaasi”, it is  a novel set in the backdrop of an orthodox Tam Brahm home in the throes of a painful transition, when an American Jew enters to live with the man she loves, till he gets his father’s nod for their marriage.

There are references to murungakkai(drum sticks—the variety that grows on trees, not the broiler type!) sambar and yezhukari kozhambu, the latter almost complete with the recipe as an aunt-in-law tells the foreign bahu-to-be.

I could not get murungakkai, but I made do with yellow pumpkin—parangikkai, and made it the varutta-arachcha style—meaning roasted and ground masala, instead of using the sambar powder.

It  turned out well in spite of the fact that I was getting into this after a long, long time.

Ingredients:

Arhar dal

Yellow pumpkin (or ash gourd,or drumstick or radish circles, or even capsicum and onions, or best, shallots)—a cup full

Tamrind—the size of a lemon

Arhar(Tovaram paruppu)- half a cup

Turmeric

Salt-to taste 

Cubed pumpkin  and tamarind

For the roasted sambar masala

Oil-two teaspoons

Dried red chillies -5

Mustard- half a teaspoon

Dhuli urad- two teaspoons

Chana dal-one teaspoon

Dhania (dry coriander) seeds-two teaspoons

Hing-a pinch

Fenugreek seeds- Quarter teaspoon

Onion chopped-one small size(instead of grated  fresh coconut, which  is the best, but tends to have very little shelf life given the extreme heat of North India, and my desire to save some for the dosai/idli two days later!)

Curry leaves – a few.

Roasting for the sambar masala

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the red chillies and mustard. When mustard crackles, add the two dals , hing  and methi seeds. W hen the dals turn golden, add coriander seeds, stir for a minute, then add the chopped onion or grated coconut, and curry leaves. Roast for two minutes, switch off. When this cools, grind to a paste, not too fine, with a bit of water. This is the fresh and fragrant, authentic sambar ingredient.

Fresh sambar masala ground on the spot

For the garnish

Dry red chillies

Mustard seeds

Urad dal

Curry leaves

Coriander leaves

Soak the tamrind in water the first thing.

Wash and pressure cook the arhar dal with a pinch of turmeric. Keep aside.

Cooked lentils and tamrind soaked

Cut the  pumpkin into cubes, boil them in plain water till almost cooked. 

Now add the tamrind water, ensuring that seed/residual fibre etc are strained and discarded. 

Pumpkin cooking in tamarind water

Let this come to boil, and continue to boil for about ten minutes. The raw smell and taste of tamrind have to be banished!

Now add the cooked arhar dal. Let the two come to a boil.

Now add the sambar masala you have made, stir in well. Add salt. Let simmer for two or three minutes.

The cooked lentils and the masala gone in

Switch off, transfer to a serving bowl, garnish, and it is ready to be served. As part of lunch or dinner with rice, or to go with idlis, sambar.

Sambar, rice and potato curry

 In Punjab people love it just that way…they can go blurp blurp with a bowl full of sambar, thanks to what they have learnt  at the many  coffee houses run by the Indian Coffee Board employees’ cooperatives–which have almost vanished.

NOTE: Typically, a bit of rice flour made into a paste is added when the sambar is sizzling, just to thicken it. But I usually skip this, as I feel this is adulteration ! More so because people tend to use atta or besan or sometimes even cornflour to do this.

If one must thicken the sambar, the better option would be to grind a few grains of soaked uncooked rice, with the masala. This will thicken the sambar just as well.