Sambar without Sambar Powder

Ever got stuck without your trusted bottle of Sambar powder?

Ther late Mrs. K. M. Mathew has a preparation in her book Modern Kerala Dishes where she makes the Sambar using a masala paste.

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 Brinjals (long white variety cut into 35 cm lengths 24 pieces
   Green chillis split at one end 10 nos
   Tur dhal 1 cup
   
2. Dry chillis 10 nos
   Coriander 3 dessert spoons
   Fenugreek 1 table spoon
   Asafoetida to taste
   Curry leaves 2 or 3 stalks
   
3. Coconut oil 1 dessert spoon
   
4. Tamarind and Salt as sufficient

Mix these in 3 cups of water.

For tempering:

1. Gingelly oil 2 dessert spoons
   
2. Mustard 1/2 table spoon
   
3. Dry chillis 3 cut into 6 pieces
   
4. Curry leaves 1 stalk

METHOD

Cook the dhal and mash it. (If necessary the dhal can be mashed on the grinding stone.) There will be about 4 cups.

Heat 1 dessert spoon of coconut oil and fry the ingredients in the 2nd item and then grind them together. Mix the tamarind and salt in 3 cups of water. Boil and then add the brinjal and green chillis. When it is cooked, mix the ground masala paste. Bring to a boil and add the cooked dhal. When it boils, again add the curry leaves and remove from the stove.

Fry the mustard, dry chilli pieces and the curry leaves in gingelly oil and add to the curry to get a spicy sambar.

Note: Small peeled onions can be added with the brinjal. Tomatoes can be added with the tamarind, but the quantity of tamarind should be reduced. Coriander leaves can be added to improve the flavour.

This is a really spicy sambar and one I like a lot. expecially when the brinjals are replaced with drumsticks.

Adapted from the late Mrs. K. M. Mathew's book Modern Kerala Dishes published in 1979.

Pumpkin Sambar

This very simple sambar is the most common one prepared by Keralites. The vegetable used is usually one which is in season. It can be drumsticks, lady’s fingers or pumpkin. I prefer the drumsticks. I give Mrs. K. M. Mathew’s recipe which uses pumpkin and the sambar powder which I have described in my earlier entry in this series.

Pumpkin Sambar

INGREDIENTS:

1. Tur dhal 1 cup
   
2. Onions sliced thick 1/2 cup
   
3. Pumpkin cut into 2.5 cm squares 18 pieces
   Green chillis 3
   Curry leaves 1 stalk
   Salt to taste
   
4. Tamarind water to taste
   
5. Sambar powder 1 table spoon
   
6. Gingelly oil 1 desert spoon
   
7. Mustard 1/4 tablespoon

METHOD

Cook the tur dhal in 3 cups of water. Add onion pieces and the ingredients in Item 3 above. When the vegetables are cooked, add the tamarind water and the Sambar powder.

Fry the mustard in gingelly oil and add the sambar preparation. (A little asafoetida fried in oil and powdered can be added to the sambar powder. This brings out a better flavour.

Mix the sambar and keep it covered. Serve hot.

I will bring up a couple more interesting variations in subsequent posts.

Courtesy: Adapted from Modern Kerala Dishes, First Edition 1979.

Controversy about Sambar

Oulu has a number of Indians from the many south Indian States - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Pondicherry and Tamilnadu. When sa discssion started in our local India House the other day, I was surprised to see the fervour of each State member defending the honour of his State with regard to the origin of a good Sambar!

I like a good Sambar, irrespective of which State of the Indian Union I eat it. But I was a bit taken aback by the accusations that were flowing and especially one which I knew was not true. The Keralites, who love their coconut milk, were accused of adding this into Sambar.

So I told my wife that I was going to do a treatise about Kerala Sambars from the works of the Queen of Kerala Cooking, the late Mrs. K. M. Mathew, known as Annammakochamma to us.

Without her cookery column in the Malayala Manorama, the readership of the newspaper would have been restricted to the male chauvanists of the State. :-)

Ever since my grandfather, K. C. Mammen Mappillai, persuaded Annammakochamma, who had attended various cookery classes when she was living in Bombay, to put her skills and knowledge to some use, this great lady did it with a fervour till the very last day of her life.

In a series of blog posts I am going to describe a few of her recipes for Sambar, starting with the making of the Sambar Powder, without which there can be no Sambar - or can there be one?

Wait and see to read all about this in my series!

Recipe for making genuine Kerala Sambar Powder:

Ingredients:

1. 1 bunch curry leaves
   A little gingelly oil
   
2. 1/2 cup Bengal gram dhal (besan)
   1/2 cup tur dhal
   2 desert spoons boiled rice grains
   
3. 1 cup coriander Hara dhania) seeds
   
4. 9 dry red chillis
   
5. 1 desert spoon Fenugreek (methi) seeds

METHOD
Smear some gingelly oil on a hot skillet and fry
the curry leaves, dhals and the rice. Afterwards
broil the coriander seeds, chillis and Fenugreek
seeds. Powder all the ingredients and keep it in
an airtight container.

It is interesting that after this recipe in her book "The Family Cook Book", the First Edition of which was published in December 1987, Mrs. Mathew added this little note:

NOTE: If a little coconut, roasted in ghee, is added to the Sambar, it will enhance the taste and aroma. It should only be added just before the Sambar is taken off the fire.

In the coming weeks, I will be putting up, one by one, all Mrs. Mathew's recipes for all the Kerala Sambars. Hope you enjoy it, so stay tuned.