Hi all.... back from my short vacation. And since my daughter leaves to her summer camp, my routine life is almost back... Filling up my refrigerator with freshly brought veggies and fruits, cleaning up my partially-messed home, ... list goes on. Going on vacation sounds much easier, but when it comes to post-vacation work, I always save an huge 'sigh' :/ Yesterday, day went quite interesting watching over election results. Victory was predicted, as usual, but winning by 1:6 ratio (Congress: BJP) was quite an 'whooping result'. Similarly goes with Tamilnadu where ADMK gained 37 out of 39 available seats. Fabulous, isn't it? Let us see if this decision solves our stagnating economy and deals with the price rise as well....
Yes and coming back to our post, born and brought up at Chennai, I could'nt miss this special SAMBHAR prepared by my mom. Infact, this is my favourite and same with my husband too. Sambhar is south-indian dal preparation, mostly tuvar dal (yellow pigeon peas), with sambhar powder (an aromatic powder made out of chana dal, dried red chillies, curry leaves, whole cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds, asafoetida, few peppercorn etc), tamarind, assorted set of vegetables (like brinjal, drumstick, snakegourd, pumpkin etc), finished with an sweet touch of jaggery.
Yes and coming back to our post, born and brought up at Chennai, I could'nt miss this special SAMBHAR prepared by my mom. Infact, this is my favourite and same with my husband too. Sambhar is south-indian dal preparation, mostly tuvar dal (yellow pigeon peas), with sambhar powder (an aromatic powder made out of chana dal, dried red chillies, curry leaves, whole cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds, asafoetida, few peppercorn etc), tamarind, assorted set of vegetables (like brinjal, drumstick, snakegourd, pumpkin etc), finished with an sweet touch of jaggery.
The trick in preparing an perfect sambhar lies in perfect balance of spice-sour and an sweet taste. As an first-try, I have messed up by adding more sourness (more amount of imly/tamarind) into my sambhar. So, I strongly recommend you to add only half of prescribed tamarind during cooking, other half you can wait till you complete the cooking, check the sambhar and add accordingly. Also, kindly note that this 'sour' factor depends on tomatos you are adding. Since, I have added hybrid tomatos, I have included tamarind. In case, I am going with country tomatos ,(which has an higher sour content) I would prefer not to add tamarind as the former itself gives out required 'sour' effect.
