Paruppu Urundai (Lentil Balls) Kuzhambu

When I try to explain what "kuzhambu" is to a non-South Indian, I typically say that it is like sambar without the dal.  This description really doesn’t do justice to the spicy, tangy flavors of kuzhambu though.  You wouldn't think that with just tamarind and a few spices you can create such a wonderful dish.

It is easier and faster to make than sambar and lasts a lot longer because you can only eat a little bit and because we don't use cooked dal, doesn't get spoiled easily.  Some people add a little jaggery, but I don't.  The jaggery helps tone down the spice level a bit, but I am not a big fan of mixing sweet and spicy tastes together.

This particular type of kuzhambu is a little more time-consuming to make than the traditional vathal kuzhambu, but is well worth the effort.  Because it is time consuming, I typically make twice as many urundais (lentil balls) as I need - and freeze the extras for later.

I made this with avial and vazhakkai (plantain) curry for lunch recently.  It came out so well that I decided to share it with a friend of ours, who loves South Indian food.  The next day, my husband started rummaging in the fridge for this and was disappointed when he couldn't find any.  Since I had made extra paruppu urundais (lentil balls), I ended up making this again for him.

Here is what you need:

For the paruppu urundais (lentil balls):

(makes about 30)

• 1 cup toor dal
• 4 – 6 red chilies
• salt to taste
• ¼ tsp. hing
• 1 tsp. oil
• ½ tsp. mustard seeds
• few curry leaves

For the kuzhambu:

•  ¼ cup of tamarind (see note)
• 3 tsp sesame oil (see note)
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp split channa dal
• ½ tsp methi (fenugreek) seeds
• ¼ tsp hing (asafetida)
• 2 dried red chilies
• few curry leaves
• 2 tsp sambar powder
• salt to taste

Note 1:  I use tamarind and not store bought tamarind paste because it tastes much better when you extract the pulp yourself.  You can use tamarind paste if you are in a rush or if you don't have tamarind handy.  Substitute 2 tsp. tamarind paste for the tamarind.

Note 2:  Sesame oil gives this dish a unique flavor.  You can use any vegetable oil that you have on hand, if you don't have sesame oil.

Here is how I made it:

For the paruppu urundai:

1. Drain the water from the toor dal.  Grind it to a coarse paste with red chilies, hing, and salt, adding very little water.
2. Heat oil in a pan.  Add mustard seeds.
3. When the mustard seeds sputter, add the curry leaves.
4. Now add the ground paste and mix well. Let this mixture cook on medium-low heat for a few minutes.  It should be a thick paste so that you can shape it into balls. Turn off the heat.
5. When it is cool to the touch, make small balls – slightly smaller than donut holes.
6. Place these on idli plates or a steamer, and steam for about 8 – 10 minutes.
7. Save half of these for use later (cool them completely and freeze them either in a Ziploc bag or an airtight container).

For the kuzhambu:

1. Soak the tamarind in a cup of so of water for ½ hour.  Squeeze out the pulp from the tamarind and save the extracted liquid.  You can discard the seeds and fiber left behind.
2. Heat oil.  Add mustard seeds, channa dal, methi seeds, hing, and red chilies.
3. Once the mustard seeds sputter, add the curry leaves (be careful because the hot oil can splash).  Fry for a few seconds.
4. Add the sambar powder and mix everything together.
5. Add the extracted tamarind juice and salt. Add a little more water if it is too thick.
6. Let this mixture come to a boil and then simmer on medium to low heat till the raw flavor of tamarind is gone (about 10 minutes).
7. Gently drop the urundais (balls) into the kuzhambu and let it simmer for five more minutes.
8. Remove from the stove.

Serve with rice and vegetable of your choice.

Oven Roasted Seppankizhangu (Arbi / Taro)

Only my husband and I eat seppankizhangu (arbi/taro) at home.  My oldest will – but he is away at college.  And, even if he were home, he would eat it just by itself and not with rice.  This means that if I am making seppankizhangu, I almost always have to make something else – unless I have leftovers. 

So the other day, I had boiled the arbi in the pressure cooker, and had also started making vathal kuzhambu, rasam, rice, and some paneer for lunch.  The paneer of course was for my son.  All my burners were taken and I was ready to be done with cooking.  So I peeled the arbi, tossed it with spices and stuck it in the oven.  It came out perfectly crispy and used less oil than my stovetop method!

Here is what you need:

• 15 – 20 arbi
• 3 tsp. oil
• 2 – 3 tsp. red chili powder
• ¼ tsp. turmeric powder
• salt to taste

Here is how I made it:

1. Boil the arbi.  You can do this on your stovetop in a big pot with water, or use your pressure cooker.  I use the pressure cooker I got from India.  As soon as the first whistle blows, I reduce the heat to low and turn it off after a couple of minutes.  This gives me firm, but cooked arbi.
2. Peel the arbi and cut it into big discs.  Let this cool a bit.
3. Preheat oven to 350°F.
4. In a big bowl, toss the arbi with oil, chili powder, turmeric powder, and salt, so that all the pieces are coated well
5. Spread this out on a large cookie sheet, in a single layer.
6. Place this in the preheated oven.
7. After about 10 – 15 minutes, flip the pieces over with a spatula, and put it back in the oven for about 10 more minutes till the arbi is crispy.

Serve with rasam, sambar, or kuzhambu of your choice.

Cocktail Idlis

Our beloved Denver Broncos made it to the Super Bowl!  We were so excited.  The last time they won the Super Bowl was when my younger son was just a few days old.  We had a quiet party at home that time, with just one other family.

This year, a friend of ours hosted the party at her place, like she has been doing for a few years now.  It was a potluck dinner.  The guests took care of appetizers and dessert and she took care of dinner.  The food was fantastic – though I can’t say the same about the game (well, maybe if you are a Seattle fan, you will disagree).  Right from the first snap, nothing went our way.  We just drowned our sorrows in food.

For appetizers, we had spring rolls, crostini, spicy cheese bites (a big hit), an amazing and healthy garbanzo salad, chips, salsa, chicken wings, and my cocktail idlis.  Our host had made a Mexican dinner and for dessert, we had brownies, cookies, and fruit.

I normally take a deep-fried appetizer to the super bowl party, but this time, did not feel like it.  Cocktail idlis seemed like a great idea.  They are steamed, bite sized, easy to make, and very tasty.  I think people liked it.

Here is what you need:

(for about 60 baby idlis – one batch in my idli stand)

• little more than 1 cup idli batter (recipe here)
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. split urad dal
• 2 slit green chilies
• few curry leaves
• 2 – 3 tsp. dosai milagai podi (gun powder) – add more if you can handle it
• little bit of salt to taste

 

Here is how I made it:

1. Grease the baby idli mold and pour teaspoonfuls of batter into them.  You can make regular idlis and cut them up into bite-sized pieces, if you don’t have the smaller molds.
2. Steam in an idli cooker/pressure cooker for about 15 minutes.  Let this cool.
3. Hear oil in a pan.  Add mustard seeds.
4. When they sputter, add the urad dal, green chilies, and curry leaves.
5. When the urad dal changes color, add the milagai podi and salt.  Add the idlis.
6. Toss the idlis in the pan to coat them evenly with the spice mix. Turn off the heat.

Note:  Make this a couple of hours ahead of the party so that the idlis have time to soak up all the flavors.

Aloo Parathas - with step-by-step pictures

On the way back from one of my recent trips to India, we took a break at Frankfurt and visited Paris and Berlin.  Our flight back to Denver was from Frankfurt.  To make it easier, we were going to stay in an airport hotel the night before our flight.  One of our close friends insisted that we stay with her brother’s family in Frankfurt, and we agreed.  Her sister-in-law made an amazing dinner for us and, on the next day forced us to take homemade aloo parathas.  I am so glad we did.  Not only were the parathas delicious, but I also got to see, first-hand, how to make them the right way.

Even though I have been making aloo parathas for quite a while, I realized I was doing a few things wrong.  Mine would taste good, but not great.  Here’s what I figured out:

a) I wasn’t adding enough spices to the filling.  Since this was going to be stuffed, it needed to have a little bit more kick, so that the tastes come through.

b) I was not adding enough filling to the dough.  I would place a small ball of it and then fold up the dough and make the parathas.  But Sudha-ji used a big ball of the potato stuffing to make each paratha.

Now I follow her way and they come out perfectly.

Although everyone in my family loves these, I don’t make them often, because, it kind of seems decadent to make these just for us, when there is no special occasion. 

This is my first attempt at taking step-by-step pictures.  Let me know what you think!

Step-by-Step guide to making Aloo Parathas:

1. Mix the chappati flour (atta) with salt and oil.

 

   2.  Add warm water and knead to make stiff dough.  Cover and set aside.

 

 3.  Boil potatoes.  Peel them and mash well.

  4.  Add dhania powder, jeera powder, chili powder, amchur powder, salt, cilantro, and green chilies

  5.  Mix everything together and mash well so that there are very few lumps.

  6.  Take a small ball of dough and dust it with dry atta.

 7. Roll it into a small, flat, thick, roti.

  8.  Place a big ball of the filling in the middle.  Bring up all the sides to close the filling.

 9.  Flatten this with the palm of your hand and dust in dry atta again.

10.  Roll this into a paratha - as thin as you can, without tearing the outer covering.  Keep dusting with dry atta to help you roll.

11.  Put the paratha on a hot tawa with the stove set to medium.

12. When bubbles start forming on top, flip it over and spread oil on it - Sudha-ji used oil and not ghee.  Flip it over again and repeat for the other side.

13.  Serve hot with pickles and yogurt.

Here is what you need:

to make 10 - 12 parathas:

For the dough:

• 2 cups wheat flour (atta)
• 1 tsp oil
• salt to taste
• warm water
• oil for cooking the parathas

For the filling:

• 10 - 12 medium sized potatoes ( I used red potatoes - slightly bigger than the baby ones)
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp. amchur (dry mango) powder
• 2 tsp. jeera (cumin) powder
• 2 tsp. dhania (coriander) powder
• 2 tsp. red chili powder
• 3 - 4 green chilies minced
•  handful of cilantro, chopped

Here is how I made it:

1. Mix the atta with salt and oil.
2. Add warm water and knead to make stiff dough.  Cover and set aside.
3. Boil potatoes.  Peel them and mash well.
4. Add dhania powder, jeera powder, chili powder, amchur powder, salt, cilantro, and green chilies
5. Mix everything together and mash well so that there are very few lumps.
6. Take a small ball of dough and dust it with dry atta.
7. Roll it into a small, flat, thick, roti.
8. Place a big ball of filling in the middle.  Bring up all the sides to close the filling.
9.  Flatten this with the palm of your hand and dust in dry atta again.
10. Roll this into a paratha - as thin as you can without tearing the outer covering.  Keep dusting with dry atta to help you roll.
11. Put the paratha on a hot tawa, and cook on medium heat.
12. When bubbles start forming on the top, flip it over and spread oil on it.  Flip it over again and repeat for the other side.

Serve hot with pickles and yogurt.