Mysore Sambar

This is another recipe I tried from 'Dakshin'. It does not look ezzackly like the picture in the book.. but it sure packs in a punch!

I had never really considered trying out any 'different' versions of sambar, to me sambar is the one you make with MTR Sambar masala and for some time now, I make my own Sambar powder at home. Leafing thru 'Dakshin' , the sheer variety boggled my mind, I didn't even know SO many sambars existed! (Ah, blogging! so much to learn! )

What was different about this sambar (to me) was that it did not taste like the 'typical' sambar ! So those who try this recipe, be prepared for something different, but yes, an explosion of flavor!
This is one thing however, you do not want to combine with idli or dosa, that, is for sure! Tastes great with rice and some ghee drizzled on it (the ghee is again a personal preference)

The recipes in Dakshin, to me, are slightly lengthy in procedure and I like to take a few shortcuts, wherever possible! For example, the recipe calls for boiling the daal in a saucepan till cooked, me, I prefer using my pressure cooker to save time and fuel. Cooking the vegetables in the microwave is faster as well!

3/4 cup Toor Daal
3 cups Water
1 cup Beans chopped
1 Potato peeled and chopped
2 tbsp Green Peas
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

PASTE
1 tbsp Coriander seeds
1/2 fresh coconut grated
1 tsp. Brown Mustard seeds
1 tbsp uncooked long grain Rice
6 red Chillies
a little water

TEMPERING
2 tsp oil
1 tsp Mustard seeds & Cumin seeds EACH
1 Red Chilli halved
Few curry leaves

Wash the daal in 2-3 changes of water and cook.

Place all the ingredients under PASTE in a blender and grind to a smooth paste. I ground them in my spice grinder and then added water to make a paste. Set aside

Chop the beans and potato in 1 inch pieces. Place in a saucepan, with the peas , add water to just cover the vegetables and cook till tender. Add the daal, turmeric and salt and the ground paste . Simmer gently until well blended
Heat 2 tsp oil , add the mustard seeds, add the cumin seeds, halved red chilli, Curry leaves. When the mustard seeds sputter add this to the sambar. Stir thoroughly. Serve hot with rice.

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S is for Sambar

Here I am with another Sambar, this time with vegetables... for Nupur's A-Z of Veges.

Here is what Wiki has to say about sambar .. however, even without this history on sambar, we can safely say..'isey to bacha, bacha janta hai!!' . A must at almost all meals in South Indian homes and well loved by almost everyone!

When I was in college, Ruia in Matunga, Mumbai, for those who are familiar with it, there is a small restaurant called Mani's Lunch home.. in those days we got Idli Sambar for just Rs. 5.50/- and the BEST part was the unlimited chutney and sambar. We would greedily slurp all the sambar and take so many servings that the idli would, by then, get crumbly and disappear into the hot sambar!! Trust me when I say, we made a meal out of it!! To date, I haven't tasted 'that' kind of sambar!!

So today I made another attempt to recreate 'that' magic..... I admit, I was not close, but the end result was quite satisfactory!

3/4 cup Toor Daal

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

Chopped vegetables (3 nos. Okra, 5-6 cubes radish, 8-10 Madras onion/ pearl onion)

1/2 tsp. Tamarind concentrate (or soak a marble size ball of tamarind in warm water for 15 mins., squeeze out the pulp and discard the solids)

2 tsp. Sambar Powder ( I used MTR brand)

1 tbsp. Oil

1/2 tsp Each Mustard seeds and Cumin seeds

2 nos. red chilly

5-7 curry leaves

2 pinches Asafetida

Salt to taste

small lump Jaggery (optional)

Wash the daal , add double the quantity water to washed daal, add turmeric powder and pressure cook it till soft and mushy

Heat oil, Add the mustard seeds , once the sputter, add Cumin seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and asafetida

Add the vegetables , cover and cook till tender, add water if needed to aid cooking

Add the tamarind conc. / juice, jaggery (opt.) water, salt and bring to a rolling boil.

Add the sambar powder and then the cooked daal.

Cook for 10 mins, till the aroma wafts in the house!

Serve with idli / dosa/ rice

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R is for Ringan Curry and Radish Sambar

The first time I heard 'Ringan' ... I absolutely did not connect it to the eggplant.. and had it not been mentioned in a blog (Trupti's!!) , I would never have known!! Well, well... so here we are, yet another eggplant recipe! For someone like me, who would not eat eggplant to save her life... I keep buying it for my significant other half.... and this time googling for recipes I came across this recipe, which was easy and different. Having come across recipes where the eggplant was subjected to roasting, stuffing, baking, this was the first, when I saw this vegetable cooked with methi / fenugreek leaves, and so I decided to make an attempt at cooking it

Ingredients:
500 g Fresh ringan / eggplant
200 g Finely chopped tomatoes
10 Pcs finely chopped green chilies (+/-)
½ Bunch finely chopped fresh methi bhaji
1 Tsp haldi
Salt to taste
2 Tsp dhana-jeera

Vaghar ( Tempering ) :
¼ Cup Oil
¼ Tsp Rai
¼ Tsp Methi
¼ Tsp Jeera
Pinch of Hing

Garnish:
¼ Bunch finely chopped fresh dhania.

Method:
Wash and cut the ringan into cubes of about 1 inch. (cut ringan when you are about ready to cook. Rub the pieces into about half a teaspoon of salt to stop them turning into black color.)

Vaghar (Tempering) :
Heat oil in a saucepan and add all the other ingredients for tempering
Add fresh methi and cook for few minutes, steering from time to time. Add pieces of ringan, mix well and cook for about five minutes
Add salt, chilies, haldi and cook further ten to fifteen minutes till ringan are fully cooked
Add dhania-jeera powder and cook for further two to three minutes on a very low heat.

I have no idea how this tasted.. However M was of the opinion that it was 'ok' .. 'ummm'..'hum, good', so I leave it to you guys to try and test and taste!

I also made Radish Sambar. For this recipe I peeked into Mahanandi and had wonderful results!! I am not too fond of radish.. too strong for me and so far have never eaten a radish salad, or vegetable... but I do like Mooli ka Parantha... that is the only exception. I was not too sure of how well this would taste in sambar... I mean would it affect the taste with the tartness? Thankfully no, the taste of sambar is as good as it can get!!! Thank U Indira!!!

Excellent accompaniment with Rice, Dosa, Idli.. Yenjoy!!!

This is going in as my entry for 'R' of Nupur's A-Z of Indian Veges

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