I think there is nothing special in paruppu or dal , but still if you didn't add enough ingredients, it really won't taste that much better.
Once my mother was ill and my father tried to cook..( I should say , he really just tried).He chose the paruppu as he thought that was the easiest one in cooking..He just cooked the paruppu in pressure cooker and just added some salt in it and served me with rice..I was too young to know about the ingredients, but still managed to say something was wrong..we struggled a lot that day.....my mother laughed when he explained how he really cooked dal...From that day, my mother had never asked my father to cook again.Whenever I cook dal, I remember everytime my father's tastiest dal :-D...
Ingredients:
- Thuvar Dal(thuvaram paruppu)-100 gms
- Turmeric powder-1/4 teaspoon
- Chilli powder-3/4 teaspoon
- Asafoetida- a pinch
- Garlic-3 or 4
- Small onions-3 or 4
- Salt - for taste
For seasoning:
- Oil- 2 teaspoon
- Red chillies-1 or 2
- small onions-2
- Mustard, Jeera(cumin seeds),curry
Method:
- Wash the thuvar dal and soak it in enough water for 15 minutes.
- Add the garlics , 3 small onions (without cutting), turmeric powder, chilli powder, asafoetida to the dal and cook it in pressure cooker.
- Allow it for 2 - 3 whistles.
- Drain the excess water, add enough salt and just smash the dal along with the cooked garlic and onion.
- Heat oil in pan and add the mustards cumin seeds and the curry leaves.
- When they start to splutter, add the red chillies and the( vertically) finely cut small onions and fry it till it is roasted.
- Add the smashed paruppu (dal) along with the excess drained water and allow it to boil.
- You can also add one tomato along with dal in pressure cooker, if desired.
- Serve it with hot rice or chappathi.
This is an instant sambar made with roasted gram. This is really a variant of Bombay sambar.
Ingredients:
- Onion(Large)-2
- Tomato-2 small
- Roasted gram (Pottukadalai)-3 tablespoons
- Coconut (grated)-1 1/2 tablespoons
- Red chillies-3
- Garlic-2 or 3
- Cumin seeds-1/2 teaspoon
- Asafoetida- pinch
- Oil-2 teaspoon
- Salt
- For seasoning: Mustard, Cumin seeds
Methods:
- Heat oil in pan and add the seasoning items.
- When it starts to splutter add the asafoetida and onions and fry it till it becomes transparent.
- Add the tomatoes and cook it well.
- Grind coconut, roasted grams, red chillies, garlic and cumin seeds into a coarse paste.
- Mix the paste with enough water to avoid getting any clumps.
- Add the liquid to the pan along with required salt.
- Allow it to cook with the lid closed for 5-7 minutes.
- Suits well with idlis and dosas.
Sambar is very popular in the cooking of southern regions of India, especially in Tamilnadu and Andra Pradesh. It is also common in Srilankan dishes. I think the people who found out this have aimed at balanced diet, as it contains the right proportion of all the vegetables and cereals (ingredients in sambar powder).
Here is the tasty sambar...
Ingredients:
- Onion-2 (large) or 10-12 small onions
- Tomato-2 medium sized
- Cut vegetables-300 gms
- Sambar powder- 1and 1/2 heaped teaspoon
- Thoovar dal (Red gram/Pigeon pea)
- Tamarind juice -1 tablespoon (if desired)
- Oil for seasoning
- Salt
For garnishing:
Coriander leaves and curry leaves
For seasoning:
Mustard, Cumin Seeds, Urad dal, 1 red chilli or green chilli (if desired), curry leaves.
Method:
- Select any three or four vegetables and cut into equal large pieces.
- Usually Brinjal, carrot, Drumstick, radish are commonly used vegetables.
- Other than these vegetables, ladys finger, tunip, pumpkin, radish, brinjal, etc can be used seperately also.
- The taste differs according to the vegetable and the proportion used.
- Soak the Thoovar dal in water for 15-20 minutes and cook it seperately in a pressure cooker with the vegetables like radish, carrot,etc.,( which needs more time to cook).
- Heat oil in pan and add the seasoning items one by one as said in previous blogs.
- Fry onion and tomatoes in oil and add the remaining vegetables like brinjal, drumstick (which takes less time to cook).
- Add sambar powder(see previous blogs)and required amount of salt.
- Fry it for a minute and then add the required amount of water.
- When the vegetables are cooked well add the remaining vegetables and the cooked water.
- Smash the cooked thoovar dal (after draining the water)and add it to the mixture.
- Do not add the thoovar dal until all the vegetables are cooked well.
- Allow it to boil until the required consistency is attained.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and curry leaves.
- Can be served with plain rice, idli, dosa, pongal.
Sambar powder is very essential in most of the South Indian recipes. Nowadays there are many brands of ready- made sambar powder available. But still they cannot compete with the home-made ones.
Only the ratio should be right enough to make it perfect. So here is my mother's ratio which makes my sambar always perfect and tasty.
Ingredients:
- Red chilli-1/4 kg
- Coriander seeds-1/4 kg
- Channa dal-100g
- Toor dal-100g
- Urad dal-25g
- Cumin Seeds(jeeragam)-75g
- Pepper-50g
- Mustard-25g
- Rice- 40 g
- Turmeric powder-40 g
- Fenugreek(vendhayam)-50g
- Asafoetida-1 & 1/2 spoon
Methods:
- Fry all the ingredients individually in a pan without oil in medium flame.
- Take care that the ingredients are roasted evenly.
- Powder it after allowing to cool.
- Store in an air-tight container.
