Ingredients
half cup tuar dal or yellow split peas
2 onions
10 or 12 medium okra – (fresh or frozen)
3 large (or one can) tomatoes (optional)
quartered tamarind extract (available in Indian stores)
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon chili powder (more if manaassukhum illa)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon methi powder
1/2 teaspoon hing powder
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon methi seeds
1/4 teaspoon veg. Oil
1 tablespoon salt to taste
4 tablespoons coriander leaves, chopped
a few curry leaves
Method
Cook the dal with chopped onions, turmeric powder, chili powder and sufficient water.
Cut the okra in two inch pieces and saute them in a frying pan with one teaspoon oil till dry and slightly browned.
Mash the cooked dal with a wooden spoon and add the salt, coriander powder, methi powder, hing and the tamarind extract.
Simmer for a few minutes and add the tomatoes and okra and half of the coriander leaves. When the vegetables are cooked, heat oil in a fry pan with a splatter screen or a lid and pop the mustard seeds.
Remove pan from the fire, add the curry leaves and methi seeds. Add this seasoning to the sambar and garnish with the rest of the coriander leaves.
Hint: Other vegetables that can be added to sambar are potatoes (which do not freeze well), shallots, pearl onions (available frozen), cucumber, Indian or oriental eggplant (baingan), beans, carrots, lima beans or squash.
Source: Maya Nair, modified.
tried the sambar, very very nice.
I have a mystery.
I had a delicious dish, South Indian, then the restaurant burned down, so I can never know what it was.
I will describe it, I have been searching for four years for it.
It was soft and spongey, in texture. It was physically the size of meatballs or like the size of plums.
It was served with either, a cold yogurt sauce, a hot creamy yogurt sauce, or a lemon or tamarind sauce spooned over them.
When you bit into one, there were small bits of vegetables, such as peas, potato cubes, carrot, string beans, or any of the above.
The outer casing that held the vegetables were spongey, that is, springy when touched, almost squishy.
The cook told me that after being out on a table for more than an hour, they would fall apart.
Can anyone please pass this question on, or find this?
I would grately appreciate being able to make them.
They were deffinitely south Indian.
thank you.
are you talking about paneer, zagreus? it’s ‘texture’ is like tofu.
EXCELLENT RECIPIES THANKS
It could be:
1. Medhu vada (made out of urad dal) soaked
in sauce like rasam or sambhar or kootu kari.
2. Vegetable kofta made out of a mixture of
cooked vegetables and besan (chick pea flour)
again soaked in curry sauce. They both are
delicious!