Drumstick sambar

Of late, I’ve been trying my hand at quite some recipes, and surprisingly, the results have been pleasant. I’ll be posting these tried and tested recipes on this blog, as a reference for myself as well as for sharing it on the internet.

I’ve always loved the south-indian sambar. I’d cooked sambar a couple of times before with good results, but I was still looking for an easy way to get the perfect flavor. I chanced upon a sambar recipe on the internet – it sounded good and simple. I did make a few personal modifications to the recipe and this is what the result looked like:

The Recipe:

1 and 1/2 cups toor dal
2 drumsticks (vegetable)
1 medium onion
1 capsicum
1 medium tomato
1 teaspoon turmeric
4 teaspoons sambhar masala
wet tamarind pulp
salt (to taste)
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon asafetida powder
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
curry leaves
4 dried red chilies (whole)

1. Chop all the vegetables into medium-sized pieces. Drumsticks should be kept 2 inches long. Put veggies in a pressure cooker with the Toor dal and turmeric powder. Add enough water to cover the vegetables. Cook for about 20 minutes.

2. Soak the Tamarind in warm water for about 30 minutes. Remove the pods and filter out the tamarind water.

3. Open the pressure cooker and make sure the dal is cooked well. Add about 4 heaping teaspoons of Sambhar masala. Also add the tamarind water and salt to taste and stir the mixture.

4. Heat oil in a kadhai and add asafetida powder, cumin seeds, curry leaves and red chillies. Add this ‘tadka’ to mixture.

5. Boil the mixture for 2-3 minutes and serve hot.