Recipe: Hitesh's Mom's Sambhar

Growing up, Sambhar has always been a regular delicacy at home, since I'm half-Mangalorean.

My late granny, Revathi Kotian, who hailed from Katipalla, near Mangaluru, would make it the best and I miss having hers!

Now my mom, Sunita Harisinghani, makes it 99.9 percent as well as Amma, and here's her recipe. It contains plenty of vegetables and freshly-made sambhar masala.

Mom’s Sambhar

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients

• 1 cup toor dal or pigeon peas
• 1 tsp haldi or turmeric powder
• 2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
• Lime-sized ball tamarind, soaked in a little water
• 1 tsp jaggery
• Salt to taste, about 1 ½ tsp
• Water

For the sambhar powder:

• 2 tsp chana dal or Bengal gram
• 2 tsp urad dal or white gram
• 2 tbsp brown dhania or coriander seeds 
• 2 tsp jeera or cumin seeds
• ½ tsp methi or fenugreek seeds
• ½ tsp rai or mustard seeds
• 8-10 black peppercorns
• 8-10 red chillies
• 2 sprigs curry leaves

The vegetables:

• 200 gm lal kadu or bopla or red pumpkin, chopped into cubes
• 200 gm small cauliflower florets
• 2-3 drumsticks, roughly peeled or scraped and cut into 1½-inch pieces
• 100 gm French beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 medium-sized small or baby baingans or eggplant or brinjals, cubed
• 200 gm suran or jimikand or elephant yam, peeled, cubed 
• 2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled, cubed
• 250 gm sambhar onions, peeled

For the tadka or tempering:

• 2 tsp coconut oil
• ½ tsp hing or asafoetida
• 1½ tsp rai or mustard seeds
• 1 sprig curry leaves

Method

For the sambhar powder:

• Dry roast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, chana dal, urad dal, red chillies, 1 sprig curry leaves, together on a tawa, over low heat, for 5-1o minutes, stirring occasionally.
  Take off heat and cool.
• In a mixer, grind to a fine powder and keep aside.

For the sambhar:

• In a pressure cooker, cook the toor dal with the tomatoes, about 1½ cups water, turmeric powder, over medium heat, for 3 whistles and take off heat.
  Let the pressure release naturally and then open up the cooker and keep aside.
• Meanwhile, boil the vegetables separately in a little water.
• Add the boiled veggies, with its water, to the boiled dal.
  Return the cooker to the heat and bring the sambhar to a boil.
  Add the freshly-ground sambhar powder, salt, jaggery, tamarind pulp and mix.
  Let it boil for 2 minutes and then take off heat.

For the tadka:

• Heat coconut oil in a small frying pan or tempering pan, over medium heat.
  Add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida.
  Once the spices begin to crackle, pour it into the sambhar.
• Serve piping hot with steamed rice and, if you prefer, also with appalams (South Indian rice papad), dash of ghee on the rice and pickle.

• REDIFF FOOD