Got a Recipe for South Indian Sambar?

Nattusbs

OK, I had a great lunch today.

Made Egplant-Onion sambhar. Now, I use, MTR Sambhar powder for convenienece and it is good.

Method:

Cook some Toor Dal with some salt(I use a pressure cooker/pan)

Soak about 1 Tbsp of tamarind concentrate in a small bowl for 1/2 hour with water (let's say 6 Tbsp).

In a thick bottome vessel:
Put:
2 tsp oil
Put tsp of jeera 9cumin seeds) and tsp of mustard seeds - let them sputter with a lid.
Add big chiunks of onions, say 1/6 pieces of a full onion.
Let that cook for 4 mins.
Add some red chillies - break each into pieces coarse
let that cook.
add tamarind that was soaked including the water (idea is that all of the tamarind would have dissolved in the water).
Add MTR sambhar powder - I don't measure - let's say 4 Tbsp.
Add the egggplant pieces (I take a Japanese/Chinese one and cut into about 24 pieces - half lengthwise, then once more half then sections).

Let that cook for 3-4 mins with stirring to prevent sticking to the bottom.

Add dal, say, 2 cups.

Add some cold water (say, 2 cups).

Let all of this cook on high heat, lwer heat then and simmer.

Check for salt, add if needed, done. Finally if you want add corainader leaves to garnish.

Cheers

Nattusbs

SitaParityaga

Nattusbs:

Got the MTR sambhar powder this afternoon.

palerider:

"A bit like a large tasteless radish crossed with a turnip' I think this could be "daikon" I also got a couple of daikon roots on my shopping trip today. Is this what you mean?

http://studio-umorly.air-nifty.com/h...ikom_thumb.JPG

etin:

I checked out your links...and now I am adding the red chillies, cumin seeds
coriander seeds and fenugreek

ladyvetphd, Digital Drifter and kalyani68:

I also got some eggplants, red leafy vegetables, shallots and "drumsticks" (frozen. labeled "saragawa", the Gujarat name for these items)

robotvoice:

Whether my own home cooked sambhar is any good or not, I will still follow your suggestion:
" Madras cafe in sunnyvale is definitely the Best. saravana bhava doesn't even come close."

robotvoice

Thank you because I am not even getting paid by them to advertise thieir good name.
I swear i'm not a tout, they just have the best Sambar in india. Oh ^$^% I mean in the world.

palerider

Noooooo, daikon actually has taste, it's called Radish in South india. White pumpkin is a pumpkin with extremely white flesh, and blood red seeds, very visually appealing, but I HATED the taste.
Worse than Brussel Sprouts.

__________________
I finally realised, in the nic of time,
that Life was for Living.

SitaParityaga

Ouuu...No Brussel Sprouts or anything like them allowed!

I did make a very tasty sambar on Sunday, thanks to all the contributors to this thread.

I will need to make it about 3000 more times before I ever get anywhere close to the taste of that New Woodlands Hotel breakfast buffet line sambhar in Chennai.

Lessons Learned...

I have always kicked aside those "sticks" in my sambhar. I thought they were a "spice"

I warned others to not swallow them. Little did I know how to eat them...and I must say, they are really tasty, like a (better than, in my opinion) asparagus taste. Asparagus without that gamey tang!

I got a big bag of frozen ones as kalyani68 suggested. I liked them enough to make sure to get more on my next trip.

Sambhar is an easy thing to put together, but a very hard thing to make well.

kalyani68

Glad your sambar was a sucess!
Lucky you, there are only a million other sambar recipes out there for you to try! Enjoy!