Ingredients:
• 4 – Carrots
• 1 cup – Red gram
• Peanuts – a handful
• 1 – Small lime-size Tamarind
• 2 tsp – Sambar powder
• 1/2 tsp – Salt
• 1/4 tsp – Turmeric powder
• 1 tsp – Rice flour
• 1 tsp – Cooking oil
• Asafoetida – 1 pinch
• 1/4 tsp – Fenugreek seeds
• 2 – Dry Red Chillies
• 6 – Curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
Method:
- Soak peanuts in hot water and keep aside.
- Wash the red gram well. Add 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and 3 cups of water and keep it in one of the stackable containers of a pressure cooker.
- Peel, slice, and arrange carrot slices in another container.
- Don’t add water, as the steam in the cooker is enough to cook the carrots.
- Take a small cup of water, add the tamarind and sambar powder to it, and place it with the carrots.
- Add an inch of water at the bottom of the cooker.
- Now stack the containers in the pressure cooker – with the one with the dal at the bottom, topped by the one with the carrots. Close the lid.
- Pressure cook for 3 whistles on a high flame and then switch off the flame.
- Do not open the cooker now, as the cooking process continues until it cools down.
- Once the cooker has cooled down (takes about 10 minutes), it’s ready to open.
- Now heat 1 tsp oil in a vessel, and add asafoetida and mustard seeds.
- When the mustard splutters, add the fenugreek seeds and roast till it becomes red in colour.
- Next, add the broken red chillies and fry till crisp. Add curry leaves.
- Now remove the carrots and dal mixture from the cooker and add to this seasoning.
- Drain the peanuts and add it to the dal as well.
- The tamarind and sambar powder should have dissolved in the cup of water.
- Squeeze out the tamarind seeds and fibre and discard.
- What you will have left is a thick mixture of tamarind juice and sambar powder.
- Add this to the dal as well.
- Stir all the ingredients till well blended, and boil for a few minutes with some salt.
- Make a paste with rice flour and a little water, and add it to the sambar; boil for another 2 or 3 minutes. This step is optional, and can be done if you want to thicken the consistency of sambar.
- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve it.
- Recipe and image courtesy: Chitra Amma’s Kitchen
- http://chitra-ammas-kitchen.blogspot.com