Durga's Amma's Yummy Onion Sambar

I love my Amma's Onion Sambar.

And so does my daughter Maya. She is the fussy type and doesn't like much of the South Indian food cooked at home. But what she loves and always asks my mother Gouri Venugopal to make, whenever we visit her, is her sambar.

Mind you, we do make sambar at home, but she never has it. She only has her Ammama's sambar.

The other things made by my Amma that she loves are Puttu Kadala (a steamed rice delicacy served with black chickpea curry) and Ela Ada (stuffed rice pancakes). But those are recipes for another day.

Today I am sharing the recipe for my Amma's sambar, made with small onions, which is my personal favourite.

Durga's Amma's Onion Sambar

Serve: 3-4

Ingredients

• 1 cup toor dal or pigeon peas
• 3 tbsp oil
• 250 gm small onions or Madras onions, peeled, available in South Indian stores
• ½ cup fresh grated coconut
• Lime-sized ball imli or tamarind, soaked in warm water
• 1 tsp haldi or turmeric powder
• Salt to taste, about 1½ tsp
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• Handful fresh green dhania or coriander or cilantro, chopped

For the sambar masala:

• 1 tsp hing or asafoetida
• 1 tsp methi or fenugreek seeds
• 3 tbsp whole dhania or coriander seeds
• 5-6 whole dried red chillies
• Water

For the tempering:

• 1 tsp rai or mustard seeds
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 2-3 red chillies broken into 2
• 1 tbsp oil

Method

• Strain the imli, after it has soaked for about ½ an hour, and keep the paste aside.
• Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a kadhai and saute the masala ingredients over low heat.
  When half done, add the grated coconut and continue roasting, stirring frequently.
  When the mixture starts turning light brown, take off heat and cool.
  Grind the mixture to a fine paste with a little water.
• Cook the toor dal in a pressure cooker with the turmeric over medium heat for 4-5 whistles, keep aside and let the pressure release naturally.
• In a large saucepan or a kadhai, saute the peeled small onions in the remaining 2 tbsp oil over medium heat.
  Then add the cooked dal, tamarind paste, ground roasted masala-coconut paste, salt.
  Mix and boil for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Take off heat and add the curry leaves, coriander leaves.
• For the tempering, heat 1 tbsp oil to a small frying pan or tadka/tempering pan over medium heat and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, broken red chillies.
  When it crackles, add to the sambar.
  Serve hot with steamed rice or idlis or dosas.

When my kids were little, we had two volumes of Karadi Tales and the audio CDs versions, which had all the stories sung by the magnificent Usha Uthup. One of the poems was Onion Sambar which went something like this:

Peel the onions.
Dice them small
Soak tamarind in water that's warm
Cook some dal and mash it soft
And add some salt and turmeric strong

The poem had added sound effects, like the pressure cooker whistling and the sizzle of the onions in oil, in addition to Usha Uthup's lovely voice. My kids and I loved singing along with all the songs. We still remember them. So, just like the poem, once you add the tempering...

Onion Sambar is ready for dinner! :-)

Durga's Note: The small sambar onions can be replaced with 250 gm mixed vegetables like drumsticks, lady's fingers (okra or bhindi), small brinjals (baingan or eggplant), white and/or yellow pumpkin, tomatoes. Or only drumsticks. Or only lady's fingers.

• REDIFF FOOD