Sambhar

Sambhar is a south indian dish. I have started liking it very recently. Earlier, i never liked it. When i was in a hostel, the mess had south indian menu all the time and every other day there was Sambhar. Since, i was not very fond of Sambhar and since it was tasteless, i started disliking it even more!! But my brother loves it and as we have many South indian family friends , my mother learnt this recipe from them. When i tasted Sambhar made by my mom, i was blown away, I could even have it as a soup without anything.
Usually it is served with idli, dosa or rice. I will post idli dosa recipes later in the blog. For now here's the sambhar recipe.

Ingredients:

1C toor dal/harhar daal
4C water
4-5 tamarind pieces
1 carrot, cut into thin strips
2 potatoes , chopped
pinch of hing
1 onion chopped
1 tsp rai/mustard seeds
4-5 red chilis
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp sambhar masala powder
salt to taste
Method:

1) Wash the daal and drop in a pressure cooker. Add the chopped vegetables. You can add more vegetables according to your taste like eggplant, beans and spinach are the common ones.

2) Add water to the cooker and cook on high flame until a whistle comes. Then turn the flame to low and let the cooker sit for about 7 mins. Turn off the heat. Let the steam get out by itself

3) Soak the tamarind in water for half an hour. You will see the pulp of tamarind mixing with water.

3) Meanwhile in a pan, heat oil and add red chilis, mustard seeds. After the mustard seeds start to splutter, add onions and fry them until they start turning golden brown. Add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder , sambhar masala and cook for a few seconds.

4) Add the water from the soaked tamarind to the masala. Add this mixture to the daal and let it come to a boil. Add more water if it comes out to be thick.

5) Serve hot with idli, dosa or rice or have it as a soup ;-)

Serves: 3-4

Tip: Add lil turmeric powder and salt to the daal while pressure cooking and daal will cook faster.