Traditional Tamil Nadu style Sambar
Posted on: 08/Dec/2018 5:01:46 PM
Sambar is such a versatile dish that goes good with Idli, Dhosa, Rice, Pongal, and more! A well-made Sambar with crunchy potato fry and Appalam can be your full meal for the day! This is one of the staple food items in south Indian households. It is prepared with dhal as the base item. So, here we have the finest recipe of Sambar as prepared in Tamil Nadu households.
Required Ingredients
Ingredients for pressure cooking
- Toor dal – 100 gm
- Tomatoes – 3 Nos.
- Onions – 2 Nos.
- Turmeric powder – quarter spoon
- Asafetida – quarter spoon
Other Ingredients
- Lemon sized tamarind
- Water – as required
- Salt – as required
- Drumstick – 2 (cut in the length of tiny finger)
- Oil – as required
- Mustard seeds – ¼ spoon
- Cumin seeds – ¼ spoon
- Red chillies – 2-3 slit
- Curry leaves – 2 strings
- Coriander leaves – a handful
- Garlic – 5 – 6 pods
Cooking Method
As the first step to prepare Sambar, soak tamarind in half a cup of water, and soak dhal in water too.
Pressure cooking dhal
- Soak the dhal for about half an hour until it gets soft.
- Take a cooker and add the soaked dhal without the water. To this, add onions, tomatoes, green chillies, turmeric powder and asafetida.
- Add water until the dhal gets soaked and pressure cook this for 3-4 whistles until the dhal gets smashed.
Sambar Preparation
- Extract the Tamarind pulp out of the soaked tamarind and keep it aside
- Take a large, deep Kadai and add oil to it. Add items for seasoning which are mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chillies, and curry leaves.
- Once the ingredients sputter, add the tamarind extract and add a little more of water to it.
- To this, add a spoon full of sambar powder and required amount of salt and give it a thorough mix
- Add the drumstick pieces to this and allow it to get cooked in the tamarind mix.
- This may take about 10-15 minutes. Now, you can see the drumstick soft and cooked well.
- To this, add the cooked dhal at last and mix thoroughly
- Take the garlic pods (with or without the skin) and shatter them and toss on to the aromatic sambar
- As you observe the flavors of Sambar, it is time to add coriander leaves (finely chopped) for garnish
So, what more are you waiting for? Go on and taste the lip-smacking sambar for rice. Add a spoon of ghee to the rice to enhance the taste of Sambar Rice. This also goes good with tiffin items like idli or dhosa as said above.
