Saravana Bhavan sambhar.;

I came across this sambar recipe in ' balhanuman'blog. I tried it out . That was extremely good. Let me share the recipe.

Let us see how to prepare.

Pressure  cook .

Toor dal 1/2 cup.
Tomato --1 
Onion---1 or 2.

Put all the above ingredients in a pressure cooker  and allow three or four whistles , so that  the ingredients get  fully cooked.  Smash the cooked, dhal, onion and tomato  and keep it aside.

Grind

Fried gram (Pottu kadalai)--1 spoon.
grated coconut                ---- 1 spoon.
Sambhar powder ----to your taste.
Turmeric Powder-----1/4  spoon.
Tomato     -------1.

Grind the fried gram, coconut, sambhar powder, turmeric powder to a fine powder and then add the tomato (cut it.) and grind the mixture to a fine paste. keep it aside.

Garnish:

Oil a little.
Mustard a little.
Cumin seeds (jeera) a little.
Methi seeds a little.
Curry leaves.
cut 1 onion to pieces.

Tamarind juice a little.( you can dilute it )
salt to your taste.
You can add any vegetable of your choice.( Pearl onions, sambhar onions, drumstick,,etc,,,,)

Cooking Instructions :

Pour oil in a pan. Heat it. Add the Mustard seeds, cumin, methi seeds.( methi seeds tend to  burn black  quickly.) Take care to see that the methi seeds turn Only red. When red, add the cut onions. Pour the diluted tamarind juice. Add the cut vegetable  and cook in low fire for a few minutes. Then add the smashed dhal-tomato-onion combo and the ground paste in the sambhar. Add salt. Bring it to a boil.
Taste it. If need be add some more salt/ sambhar powder.Take care to boil it for a few minutes only.otherwise, you will end up with kothsu, and not sambhar.

When it reaches the required consistency, remove from fire. add coriander leaves on top .

Your tasty Sambhar is ready.This sambhar will go well with idly, dosa pongal.......

Here  is a secret to make your  sambhar yummy. Just serve it with lots of  love and affection.
That does wonders . Trust me.

Sweet Bitter Gourd Gravy (Paagarkai pitla in Tamil)

Bitter gourd can be turned into a sweet dish with a little effort. Let us see how to make the bitter gourd taste sweet.

For that all we need :

1.  Bitter Gourd  1/4 kilo.
2. Tamarind  (size of a small lemon).
3. Turmeric Powder 1/4 tea spoon .
4. Sambar Podi  to your taste.
5. Grated coconut  2 teaspoons.
6. Salt to taste.
7. Powdered jaggery 2 to 3 teaspoons.
8. Oil to fry and garnish.
9. Mustard  to garnish.
curry leaves and coriander a little.

To fry and  grind:

Asafoetida a little.
Dhaniya   2 teaspoons.
Bengal gram dhal( Channa dhal)  2 tea spoons
Raw rice  2 tea spoons.
Red Chillies  2 or 3

Cut the bittergourds into small pieces.
  
Pour oil in pan. Heat it. Fry the asafoetida and then fry the rice,dhal, dhaniya and red chillies  till they are golden brown. Put all these fried ingredients along with grated coconut  in a mixie  jar, powder it , add water  and  grind to a paste. The paste should not be very fine or smooth. Let it be  a little coarse , so that the consistency of the gravy will be good. Otherwise it will become  very thick and sticky.

soak the tamarind in water  and extract  the juice.. Let the juice be a little watery

Now, heat a little oil in the pan. add mustard seeds. Let it pop. Then add the curry leaves and the cut bitter gourds. Fry a little. Then add the tamarind juice . Add salt,turmeric powder, sambhar powder. Keep in mind the red chillies you have ground , when you add sambhar powder.

Let the bittergourds  get cooked. After that  add the  ground paste to the bittergourd.  When the mixture starts boiling , add the jaggery. After the jaggery get dissolved , remove from fire. If you keep the gravy on fire for a long time  it might get thickened to a paste. The consistency should be like  sambhar.
Taste the  gravy. If need be ,you can add sambhar powder/ salt/ jaggery.

Serve it Hot. This goes well  with rice.

Don't forget to  serve it with lots of love and affection. 
Iam sure that will make a world of difference in taste .

Tomato Dosa

When I was just roaming around the net, I came across this tomato dosa recipe written by Mrs. GeethaSambasivam.The recipe  sounded interesting. When I tried this with a little changes here and there, it came out good. Let me share this with you.

All we need is

1. Raw rice 1 cup.

2. Idli rice ( boiled rice)-----  1 cup.

3.Urad dhal-------  Half a cup.

4. Toor dhal( sambhar dhal)------Half a cup.

5. Tomatoes 3 or 4

6 Green chillies----3 

7. ginger  a small piece.

8. salt to taste.

9. Oil to prepare dosa.


Soak the rice, dhal for four hours. Then grind them  in a grinder or a mixie. when the grinding is half way through add the chillies, ginger, tomatoes .You can grind the tomatoes with or without peeling the skin. For peeling the skin of the tomatoes,leave the tomatoes for a few minutes in hot water. Then you can peel the skin. 

I did not peel it. It did not make a difference in taste or texture.Unpeeled tomatoes  would be good for our excretory system . 

When it is fully ground ,you can add salt and prepare dosas immediately.

When preparing dosas, let us use,  health friendly   iron  dosa  pans .
Avoid   Non-Stick cook wares.

I should thank Mrs. Geetha Sambasivam for being instrumental to my revised wonderful recipe.

Image courtesy---google.