The Yezhukari Kozhambu & "Chennaivaasi"

Seven vegetables Treasure , a cousin of popular sambar

I had almost forgotten there was a dish by this name, until I read a book--Chennaivaasi by T S Tirumurthi-- to review, recently.

A lady from a Tamil Brahmin household in Madras teaches her nephew's American Jew girl friend, to make Yezhukari( seven vegetables) kozhambu, which is sambar minus some frills.

And I was transported to my childhood when we fussed and found excuses to not touch any of the seven vegetables. By the time I got to appreciating it, I had moved on so in life, that I would have had to make it myself for myself!

Here goes the excerpt of the reference to the dish :


"If you are serious about Ravi, you have to learn to say that one! Yezhukari kozhambu! But the good news is that you don't have to cook it. Frankly, no Chennai girl in your age group knows how to cook it either!"  (says Kamala a thai (paternal aunt) to  Deborah.)


On the gleaming black cuddapah stone slab of Kamala athai's kitchen lay heaps of cluster beans, snake gourd, colocasia, raw plantain, sweet potato, brinjal, white pumpkin, French beans and red pumpkin--all cut evenly into small pieces. A Sumeet mixie was placed next to them.


"Ravi likes yezhukari kozhambu. And since he says his tongue has died, I thought I would revive it with his favorite dish. You will see nine vegetables spread out here". She swept her right arm across the black cuddapah like a magician about to perform his first trick. "It's called seven-vegetable kozhambu but there can be any number of vegetables as long as they are in an odd number, say seven or nine or even eleven"


Athai started boiling the vegetables. The heat in the kitchen also began to rise. When the vegetables were half boiled, she added tamarind water,salt and a pinch of turmeric. "Wait till the smell of tamarind is gone" she told Deborah, and took some red gram, dal, ground coconut and chillies and friend them. She dropped them into the mixie and its high-pitched whine filled the kitchen. "Add this to the boiling mixture and top it up with coriander leaves, mustard and fenugreek. That's all there is to it! If you do it well, the entire neighborhood is supposed to soak in the fragrance of yezhukari kozhambu!"




***
While I will make it and post pictures and exact quantities , ensuring the neighborhood sniffs their way to my place, do read my review of the book that has made me want to run to the nearest vegetable market and pick the seven or more suitable vegetables.

The Week | Madras of yore