Sambar - A South Indian Recipe
beans, indian, sauce, vegetables
2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/8 teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
2 teaspoon chana dal
15 whole red chilis, to taste
3 teaspoon coconut (shredded)
1 large onion; chopped into big
1 pieces
1 teaspoon oil
3/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 vegetables, like carrots,
1 sweet potatoes, pumpkin
4 oz juice of tamarind; or to
1 taste
1 some curry leaves (if
1 available)
1 salt to taste
3/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (optional)
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup toor dal (cooked) [?]
1 tablespoon coriander leaves; chopped
A liquid substance traditionally eaten with dosai, idli, vadai and rice, among other things.
Fry coriander seeds, asafoetida, chana and chilis and grind with coconut, use shredded dried if too lazy to deal with fresh. The quantity of coconut varies according to taste.
Fry the onion for about 5 min in a little oil with the turmeric powder. Add the vegetables and some water and cook. I would add hard to cook veggies like carrot and chatyote first and cook for a while before adding sweet potatoes and pumpkin.
(Can make this also with a single vegetable, no need to use all of them.) Don't overcook veggies, but when just cooked, add tamarind juice, curry leaves, salt to taste.
Soon after adding the tamarind juice, take a separate frying pan and heat up the 1T oil. When hot enough so that the mustard seeds will crackle when thrown in, put the mustard seeds in, once the crackling has stopped add the fenugreek seeds and stir until they turn a dark brown color (don't burn). Then add this the boiling mixture.
Boil all together for another 5 min. Now add the paste of masala and coconut and add the dal. Bring to a boil and switch off. Add chopped coriander leaves.
Takes 2-3 hours for the flavour to settle down, but can be eaten right away also.
Vegetables that must NOT be used are those that belong to the cabbage and caulflower families.
While frying ingredients for the paste, throw in coriander seeds first and fry awhile before putting in the others, otherwise the coriander seeds won't fry properly and will taste pretty awful.
CONTRIBUTOR radhika radhika@cs.washington.edu From: Michael Loo Date: 26 Jul 97 National Cooking Echo Ä
Yield: 1 servings