Sambhar Recipe

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There might be a slight issue with the quantity. The quantity of Sambhar I made turned out a medium wok-full, some 1.5 litres of it. This would last me and bro for a week at least. Sigh…

Here I have tried to give lesser quantities and measures. If you use lesser amount of vegetable and dal you can reduce the quantity of Sambhar.

Pic taken in a rush, with a background score of tummy growls.

 

Ingredients:

• Sambhar Masala: 1 – tbsp.
  I used the readymade version by Eastern Masalas (South Indian companies are preferable for South Indian masalas). Mom makes and stores her own Sambhar Masala. If you have the patience, here is the recipe: http://www.rakskitchen.net/2013/06/2-sambar-powder-recipe-homemade-sambar.html
• Tur Dal – 1 cup (1/2 cup for a thinner Sambhar.) Pressure-cook it.
• Tamarind – pulp or juice of one gooseberry or lemon sized ball.
• Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp (Use ½ with the veggies and dal and rest with the seasoning)
• Salt to taste.
• For one bowl of Vegetables:
  Preferably, use roots and tubers, gourds, aubergines, tomatoes, beans, drumsticks, okra. Here is a list of the veggies normally used in Sambhar (You can adjust the quantity of each vegetable according to your preference; the total quantity is better to be limited to one bowl / katora):
• Yam (suran) – Cut into cubes approx. three quarters of an inch.
• Potatoes – Diced into chunks (fairly large, for e.g. A medium-sized potato needs only be cut into 4 pieces)
• Carrot: Quartered and diced into 1” sticks.
• Pumpkin – Diced into cubes.
• Bottle Gourd (lauki) – Diced into cubes.
• Small Aubergines – Diced into fairly large chunks.
• Drumsticks – Cut into index or little finger lengths.
• Tomatoes – Diced into large chunks, preferably 4 pieces each.
• Beans – Cut into 1.5” lengths.
• Vegetable For Seasoning: Okra – Cut into 1” lengths

(The idea is to dice the vegetables into chunks of approximately the same size, except for the ones like tomatoes and aubergines which need to be slightly larger so that they do not completely disintegrate while being cooked.)

Note 1: Yam needs extra cooking time; if you plan to include it in Sambhar it might be a good idea to cook the yam separately.

Note 2: Keep the okra separately. Do not steam or boil it with the rest of the vegetables. Wash, pat dry and slice the okra and then fry it till they give this nice aroma (Do not crisp them.)

Note 3: There are two ways to cook the veggies –

1. Pressure-cook them separately. In the cooker tin, put in all the veggies except yam and okra and add a bit of salt and sprinkle some Sambhar powder (I used about 2 tsps. as I had a lot of veggies.) Use enough powder to coat the veggies lightly. Sprinkle some salt and turmeric and add a bit of water, half a cup or less. Pressure cook for 3 whistles. (I used this method, because I didn’t want the veggies to be overcooked)
2. Pressure-cook both dal & veggies together. Place the dal in the cooker and place the veggies in a small container on it. Pressure cook for 3 whistles. (This might result in the veggies becoming a bit overcooked and they might disintegrate in the Sambhar – but according to Mom, this is best for kids as they can’t really throw away the veggies.)

• For The Tadka / Seasoning:
• Small onions / Sambhar onions /shallots – 3-4 sliced
• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp.
• Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp.
• Dried Red Chilli – 1 or 2
• Curry leaves – 8 to 10 numbers
• Asafoetida / Hing – A generous pinch.
• A bit of chilli powder – optional
• Oil for cooking
• For Garnish: Coriander leaves – Coarsely chopped

Method:

In a large kadhai, heat some oil. When it’s hot enough, throw in the mustard seeds and as they splutter, add the fenugreek seeds, hing, dried red chillies, curry leaves and small onions (all the seasoning ingredients). Sauté till the onions are done.

Add the tamarind juice, turmeric powder and the rest of the Sambhar powder and let it boil. Add a bit of water if the mixture is too thick or it will burn. Boil until the raw smell of tamarind and Sambhar powder is gone. Add salt to taste.

Now add the vegetables (except okra) to this boiling mix. Mix well.

Add the cooked dal, mash it if necessary. And with the dal add a half cup of water. Adjust the water quantity according to the consistency you want your Sambhar to be.

Mix well and now add the fried okra.

Bring the Sambhar to a boil and add the coriander leaves. Let simmer a bit.

Tada! Your Sambhar is ready.

Weighing On My Mind

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I have a weighty issue... It's my weight. It has been almost an exponential progression in the last few years. In college when almost all my friends were underweight I was the perfect weight for my height... Not a kilo more. Yet, I was referred to jokingly as 'moti'. With a waist of 28" the playful jibes didn't matter to me... I knew I was tall enough to balance those 'extra' inches.

After college, happened a job in Gaming... In spite of it sounding exciting, it was actually a sedentary job that required endless hours in front of the PC with rarely a stretch of any muscles other than those in my fingers. Combined with a lack of exercise, my haphazard timings of meals played havoc with my body. Naturally, the waistline now measured 32"... That's a four inch increase in 2 years. 

My sedentary lifestyle continued with my later jobs. Food habits were equally bad... though there was no binging on unhealthy food. My body's metabolism rate took a beating and since then it refuses to breakdown what little quantity of food I eat. That quantity has often been described as 'chidiya ka khaana' (roughly translates to feeding portion of a sparrow)... But, it has not stopped my body from storing up all that as fat just in case it has to face a decade long famine.

Well, now I am on my 6th job that involves sitting on my bum all day and have completed roughly a decade of wheeling my office chair around a maximum of 180°... And NO... I am definitely not gonna tell you what my waist measures now! What really bothers me is that I have to lose over 30 kilos to be considered fit.

My fitness issue is complicated further by my tendency to spiral into depression for long periods of time... Sometimes spanning a year. These phases make me lethargic, more sluggish than I'd care to be. Add to that my general lazy demeanour and I have carved out for myself the perfect route to obesity. This becomes a vicious cycle... Every time I look in the mirror I find I hate what I see and that makes me sad. The only saving grace is, until now, depression hasn't caused me to over-eat... But, it makes me sleep. Sleep a lot. And then there are hormone problems... That's as tiresome as it gets!

Anyway, I have decided to take matters into my own hands... Be my own inspiration, my own motivator and crack the whip on my own bum! I may have found help coming from totally unexpected quarters... But, that's another story... for another day.

So today I charted a diet plan for myself, nothing fancy, no flash, no miracles expected... A simple light diet that avoids heavy carbs like rice and potatoes and yet satisfies hunger. Now, motivating myself to exercise... That is an uphill task indeed. I am trying to find interesting alternatives to the gym which frankly, I abhor. Maybe Zumba! I haven't figured out how yet but I know I have to sweat some of my weight off!

In the pursuit of that satisfying meal which is healthy and nutritious but does not insult my taste buds, I tried out something that came highly recommended by a health conscious friend (and by some magazines). It is this 'supergrain' quinoa. I tried it and it is easy to prepare and suits Indian cooking styles... So, I have replaced rice in my mostly South Indian menu with quinoa. I am liking it so far... But, the stuff is a little on the expensive side. 

I made my first quinoa dish yesterday... Quinoa Pulao. The recipe is same as any simple pulao where the rice is substituted by quinoa.

Baking Blues!

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I don’t really cook… never had the need to. I love watching cookery shows… and sifting through recipes. Mom says that is because I do have little cook inside me trying to claw its way outside and get snappy with some dishes. She can say that… she loves cooking and is an awesome cook. Though I can cook if I want to, I don’t have the patience for it.

With mom insisting that I should once in a while step in to the kitchen and don the apron for some actual cooking instead of to just filch whatever goodies she prepares, I decided to bake a chocolate cake. Now, long back we had this cute little round electric oven that looked like a flying saucer… and in those days we made a lot of baked goodies. As a kid, I remember baking tiny tarts and little cupcakes. All that stopped years back… the spaceship oven stopped being reliable and the microwave was a terrible baking oven, we got an OTG and it just became an extra shelf to hold snacks and such. :)

Some 10 years back, I did bake a cake in it for my brother’s birthday, and some nankhatai cookies. After that the OTG has never known any baking… it has done a bit of grilling and roasting of chicken in it… but that’s about the use it has seen.

So today I emptied the oven of all the snacks and dusted and aired it. Then I checked the fridge and the pantry to see if I had any of the ingredients for making a chocolate cake. Luckily, there was some cocoa, flour, baking powder, eggs and butter. I wasn’t going to make anything fancy… just a simple chocolate cake. For a long time I have wanted to do some cake decoration… that is what I am good at… creative stuff… my experience of sculpting with clay could easily be translated to some sculpted frosting. I have quite a steady hand and am not bad at henna decorations, so piping the frosting would be a piece of cake too. ;)

Unfortunately, I had none of the ingredients required to prepare the icing… except icing sugar. I wanted to make marshmallow fondant and I did search the supermarket for marshmallows to no avail! :(

I whipped up the batter and then realized that I didn’t even have a decent cake pan… but, the batter was ready and I had to see this through. I decided to use the pie-dish as a cake pan! And in went the batter for a session of fragrant baking. The kitchen smelt heavenly with the aroma of the cake crust and even papa was of the opinion that it smelt good. The cake came out nice and fluffy and I was quite happy that it wasn’t the disaster I had expected it to be.

With some cooking chocolate, condensed milk and butter, I made something that resembled a chocolate ganache and coated the cake with it and also layered it inside. Stuck the cake in the fridge for the ganache to set and then I got to making up something that could be pulled of as ‘frosting’. I had a pack of strawberries and some black grapes… sliced them up for the decoration… then I used some icing sugar, condensed milk, cream and a wee bit of food colouring to make some fake frosting which was more syrup than icing. Well, I had no choice so I just went with the ‘flow’!

Here is the Melting Chocolate Cake!