Sunday, February 3, 2008

Hotel Sambar

This is a special sambar that my mom cooks only on special ocassions. We used to call this sambar as 'Hotel Sambar'. It tastes amazing with Idli, dosa and hot rice. It takes a while to prepare this sambar but the end result is worth it

Serving: 5-6 people


















Cook Dhal
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Toor dhal:3/4 cup
Tomato: 1 Big chopped
Garlic: 1 flake
Turmeric: 1 pinch

For seasoning:
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Oil – 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/3 tbsp
cumin: 1 heavy pinch
Broken red chillies – 2 (remove the seeds)
green chilli- 1 slit vertically (optional)
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
onion: 1 medium chopped lengthwise. You can also use 6 small onions
Garlic flakes: 1 medium, minced

Vegetable:
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Have a cup or 1.5 cups of vegetables of your choice. I use a combination of carrots, beans, raddish,drumstick, caulifower, brinjal etc
pinch of salt and turmeric

Sambar powder:
==============
Channa daal: 1/2 tbsp
Urad daal: 1/4 tbsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tbsp
Pepper corns 1/4 tbsp
Mustard seeds: 1/4 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds: 1 pinch
Asafoetida:1 small pinch

Other ingredients
================
Coconut flakes: 2 tbsp
Tamarind juice: 1/4 cup thick juice made with 1/2 tbsp tamarind paste
Chilli powder: 1/3 TBSP
Coriander/Dhaniya powder: 1 TBSP
Cilantro/coriander leaves: 1/4 cup
Salt as required

STEP1: (cook dhal)
==================
--Add dhal,tomato,1 garlic flake,turmeric,2 cups of water in a pressure cooker.
--Cook until the dhal becomes soft.(usually it takes 7 whistles, it can differ from cooker to cooker)
--Open the cooker and mash the dhal

STEP2: (cook veggies)
=====================
Boil the vegetables three fourth in enough water with a pinch of salt and turmeric.Make sure you have atleast a cup of veg soup after the vegetables are cooked. Dont fully cook or overcook your vegetables

STEP3:
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Toast grated coconut,grind it & keep it aside

STEP4: (make sambar powder)
============================
Toast all the ingredients mentioned above for sambar powder and grind them to a fine powder

STEP5:
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--Keep your sambar utensil on the stove
--Add 2 tbsp oil.
--After oil heats up, add mustard seeds,cumin,broken chilli,green chilli, garlic and curry leaves.
--After mustard splutters, add onions and fry until it becomes translucent.
--Add a cup of water and heat it.
--Add tamarind juice,chilli powder,coriander powder,seasoning,cilantro leaves,salt and 1 full tbsp of ground sambar powder
--Add cooked dhal and cooked vegetables with water/soup (dont throw the water away)
--Add enough water and bring it to the consistency you want.
Close the vessel and boil the contents for 10-12 minutes in medium-low flame.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Manjuji,
When to add the grated coconut you missed it out pls check and update
Thanks and regards
Mr Dataram Pednekar

Anonymous said...

Hi Manju, my husband loves to have sambhar every time along with idli. I dont know how to prepare it and i tried out many recipes available in the internet but he used to say there is some thing missing for about an year and finally I tried ur receipe and HE LOVES IT simply. Many many thanks for ur recipe. Keep going...