Kadamba Sambar

Kadamba sambar is something which my patti used to make during any special occasion in our house like somebody's birthday, or wedding day or some family get together. I have never seen my MIL make this sambar. She used to combine two or three vegetables and make sambar, but not with more than 6 or 7 vegetables. I made this kadamba sambar for our wedding day couple of days back. Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:-

1. Potato - 1( chop it into cubes)
   
2. Drumstick - 6 (acc to taste)
3. Tomato - 1 ( chop it into cubes)
4. Eggplant - 1( chop it into cubes)
5. Pumpkin - a small piece (5 cubes)
   
6. Chow chow - a small piece (5 cubes)
7. Onion - 1( chop it into cubes)
8. Okra - 2 (chop it accordingly)
   
9. Tamarind - a small lemon sized (soak it)
   
10. toor dhall - 1 1/2cups
    
11. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
12. Sambar powder - 1 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
13. Salt to taste

To Grind:-

1. Coriander seeds - 1 1/4 tsp
2. Channa dhall - 3/4 tsp
3. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
4. REd chillies - 3 or 4 (acc to taste)
5. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
6. Coconut - 3 tsp
7. Asafoetida powder - a pinch

For seasoning:-

1. Oil - 2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
4. Red chillies - 1
5. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
   
6. Curry leaves - for garnishing

First pressure cook toor dhall with required amount of turmeric powder and keep it aside. Take a pan, fry the ingredients given to grind, to golden brown and grind it into a fine paste. Keep it aside. Squeeze juice from tamarind for about one and half cups and keep it aside. In a flat bottomed pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, red chillies and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the above given vegetables one by one and saute for a minute. Now add the squeezed tamarind juice to the vegetables, required amount of salt, turmeric powder and sambar powder to it and cook it for atleast 7 to 10 minutes ( or till the vegetables are 3/4th cooked). Now add the grounded coconut paste to the vegetables and let everything cook together for another 3 minutes. Now add the cooked toor dhall to it and boil it for another 5 minutes. Garnish it with curry leaves. Serve it hot with rice.




This recipe goes to CMT - Dhal/Kadi/Sambar/Rasam, hosting by Priya , an event by Jagruti.

Rasvali - Mixed Vegetable Gravy & Entries for Rice Event

This is absolutely new recipe for me which I got from one of my good friend Rani. I hope I spelled it right. She emailed me this recipe and asked me to try it out. I tried this yesterday and as she said, it tastes really good and goes really well with rice and can be used as side dish for roti, dosa etc. Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:-

1. Potato - 4 (medium sized) (chop it into cubes)
2. Carrot - 2 (chop it into cubes)
3. Peas - 1/4 cup ( i used frozen)
4. Onion - 1 (if its medium or 1/2 if its big)
5. Tomato - 1 (chop it)
6. Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp
7. Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Red chillies powder - 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
9. Salt to taste
10. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
11. Jaggery - 1 1/2 tsp
12. Peanut powder - 3 tsp (acc to taste)
13. White Sesame seeds - 1/4 tsp **
    
14. Tamarind paste - 1/4 tsp **
15. oil - 2 tsp
16. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
17. fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
    
18. Coriander leaves - for garnishing.

First dry roast peanuts and white sesame seeds to golden brown and grind it into a fine powder. Keep it aside. In the mean time, take a pan, add potato, carrots & peas, add required amount of water and let it cook. Drain it when it is done and keep it aside. Pre heat oil in a pan, splutter cumin and fennel seeds, add onion and saute for few minutes. Now add tomato and saute for few seconds and add the cooked vegetables, required amount of water (say about half a cup), turmeric powder, salt, tamarind paste, cumin powder, chilli powder and coriander powder and let everything cook together really well. Add water if necessary. Add the grounded peanut+sesame seeds now along with jaggery and let them cook for another couple of minutes. Consistency will be like sabji. Add water to adjust the required consistency. Garnish it with coriander leaves. It really goes well with rice which we tried yesterday. I just followed the same recipe she emailed me. But I added couple of more ingredients. They are...

** - In the original recipe, there was no tamarind or white sesame seeds. But I added those two which I think was a good idea cos my hubby could not figure out whether it is a sambar or not (LOL)

I am reposting couple of my variety rice recipes for Srilekha's EFM - Variety Rice Series

My First Entry is Bell Pepper Rice


Second Entry is Tomato Rice

Thir one is Orange Rice
Fourth one is Palak Pulav


Fifth one is curd rice

Drumstick Curry

All these years i have only tried drumstick dhall, drumstick kootu, drumstick vathakozhambu or drumstick sambar. One of my twin is a very big fan of drumstick. She can eat drumstick in any form. But I was kinda bored to make the same stuff with drumstick. So I wanted to try this drumstick curry which one of my friend used to bring for lunch when we were in college. It came out pretty good and as always my little one had fun eating drumstick along with tomato and onion...Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Drumstick - 1 cup (chop it into 2 inch long)
2. Tomato - 1 (chop it)
3. Onion - 1 (chop it)
   
4. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5. Coriander powder - 3/4 tsp
6. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
7. salt to taste
8. Oil - 1 tsp
9. Mustard seeds - 1/4 ts
10. cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
11. coriander leaves - to garnish
12. Asafoetida/hing - a pinch
    

Preheat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida powder, till it becomes golden brown. Now add the chopped onion and saute till it becomes transparent. Now add the chopped tomato along with chopped drumstick. Saute for couple of minutes. Add required amount of water, add turmeric powder and salt and let it cook for 5 to 7 mts till the drumstick is almost done. Now add the coriander and chilli powder to the mixture and saute for few more minutes. Sprinkle a handful of water if necessary. Turn off the stove when you get the required consistency. I wanted a little bit watery consistency curry. So I added little bit extra water. Adjust water according to the required consistency. Garnish it with coriander leaves.

Spicy Plantain Curry/Vaazhakkai kara curry

Plantain/Vaazhakkai is one of my favorite vegetable. I usually make vaazhakka curry or vaazhakka podimas in a simple way. But this time, I wanted to try the spicy curry which my chitti used to make. Actually she will make this curry using Taro root/chepangezhangu. But I wanted to try the same method with vaazhakkai and it came out really well..

Ingredients:-

1. Plantain - 3
   
2. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
3. Red chillies powder - 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
4. Salt to taste
   
5. Rice flour - 3 tsp (required amount acc to the quantity of plantain)
6. Oil - 4 tsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
8. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
9. Asafoetida - apinch
   

There are two ways of cooking plantain. Just cut them into small cubes and cook it on stove top with required amount of turmeric and salt and drain it once its done or Pressure cook it along with the skin and peel the skin once it is done. I used the second method. Once it is cooked, peel the skin and cut it into cubes. Keep it aside for 10 minutes. In the mean time, mix rice flour, turmeric powder(if you have not added it before), chillies powder and salt together and rub those plantain cubes in it. Now take a pan, preheat oil, splutter mustard seeds and fry urad dhall & asafoetida powder to golden brown. Now add the plantain pieces to it and fry it in low flame. Cook it until all becomes golden brown. Enjoy it with Sambar rice or curd rice...

Simple Cabbage Garbanzo Curry

This is another recipe I learned from my cousin Rashmi. During our last visit to her place for get together, she made this curry. I really loved the combination of cabbage and Garbanzo beans. I usually add green peas with cabbage. But this is something new to me. So thought of trying it today.

Ingredients:-

1. Cabbage - 3 cups ( chopped)
2. Garbanzo beans - 1 cup ( I used canned beans cos its already cooked)
3. Salt to taste
4. Oil - 1 tsp
5. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
6. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
7. Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste
8. Shredded coconut - 1 tsp (optional)
9. curry leaves - for garnishing
   

First drain the required amount of garbanzo beans from the can and keep it aside. Add the chopped cabbage in a pan, add required amount of water and salt(just enough for cabbage cos beans will have salt), cook it nicely. Make sure its not mushy. Drain the extra water from cabbage and keep it aside. Pre heat oil in the same pan, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall & red chillies to golden brown, add cooked cabbage and garbanzo beans and mix everything together. Also add the coconut and mix well. Turn off the stove. Garnish it with curry leaves. It just took me 7 minutes to finish this curry.