Final Preparation:
Sambar is a king recipe which
demands the
biggest vessel for being simmered till all the tastes get cross blended.
Hence,
take a broad vessel (a big kadhai) and add tomato pieces and
some water. Cook the tomatoes
till they are three- fourths done. Now add the cooked vegetables, cooked
dal,
prepared paste and some water. Mix all the ingredients well and cook
till it
reaches a boil. Lower the flame and cook for 5 more minutes. Now season
the Sambar.
Seasoning:
- Oil – 3tsps
- Ghee – 1tsp
- Fenugreek Seeds – 5 Seeds
- Mustard Seeds – 1tsp
- Cumin Seeds – 1tsp
- Red Chilies – 2 (Broken into
pieces)
- Curry Leaves – Few
- Asafoetida – 1/8tsp
Heat
a pan and add oil to it. Add ghee to the oil and heat it. Add fenugreek
seeds
and fry for a while. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Fry till the
seeds
splutter. Now add the red chili pieces, curry leaves and asafoetida.
When
all the ingredients are fried well, add this seasoning to the boiling sambar
and mix well. Transfer the contents to serving bowls and garnish with
chopped
coriander leaves. Serve hot with plain rice or with IdliOr
with Dosa Or with Utappam etc…
Points to Notice:
Adding
fried onions to the dal and cooking the dal gives a special flavor and
sweetness to the sambar.
Try
not to remove the skins of the vegetables used in the preparation of sambar.
If removing skins chop the peels and grind them along with the paste
ingredients as shown in the movie. All Vitamins lie just beneath the
skin of
the vegetable—so do not throw away the skins. Instead use the peels
innovatively. No one will come to know, unless and until you disclose,
about
the peels you have ground in the masala. When the peels are ground
and
added the thickness of sambar increases. So to balance the
consistency, add water.
Remember to adjust salt for more water you are adding. Taste to check
water and
salt.
I
prefer to grind the ingredients and make a paste fresh rather than using
sambar
powders. If prepared this way your sambarwill always be a
hit.
If
you wish to do less quantity of sambar,
divide the ground paste into portions and store it in airtight packs in
deep
freezer. It will last for nearly a month without losing the taste.
If
possible try to cover the vessel as soon as you add the seasoning to the
prepared sambar—that way the flavor of the
seasoning gets mixed well with
the sambar.
Do
not worry about the thickness of the sambar as the thickness is due to
the
peels and seeds of pumpkin and bottle gourd.
Variation:
To reduce the thickness you
may reduce the dal from 100 ml cup to 75 to 50
as per your taste.
Cook KANDA (Elephant Foot)
and grind it to a fine paste. Add
this to the sambar and reduce dal quantity. It is just a
variation without any change in the
taste—as KANDA is good for ladies suffering from menstrual problems.
You can also add other
vegetables like cucumber, ash gourd,
radish,drumsticks etc to the list. Reduce the quantities of potatoes,
bottle
gourd and pumpkin to balance the vegetables.
Add the gourd peels and gourd
seeds to the paste while
grinding. Here gourd means bottle gourd, ash gourd and also pumpkin. As
all
Vitamins lie just beneath the skin of the vegetable it is advisable to
eat the
skins too. If it is not possible to cook the vegetables with skins, then
grind
them into a paste and add to the sambar. This way we get the required
fiber
also. Until you disclose no one will come to know what seeds and peels
have
gone into it.
At times, some people
increase one vegetable quantity,
compared to or excluding other vegetables of potatoes, bottle gourd and
pumpkin. Example say radish, then it becomes radish sambar.
Those of you who want a
Restaurant flavor of the Sambar may crush two cloves of
garlic and add it while boiling and
remove it while serving. It should leave a tinge only. Don’t be tempted
to
grind it with masala, else it would dominate all
other
spices.
Critical steps
not to be forgotten:
1. Adding fried onions to the
dal and cooking.
2. Making the masala paste as
smooth as possible. Coconut
should not be visible in the masala paste.
Serve hot sambar garnished with coriander
leaves. Sambar is a wholesome food. Looks
Great and Tastes Great.
Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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