Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

My mom’s home was more like arachu vitta sambar type. Weekly there will be atleast 4 sambar days, rest will be kootu and rasam.  We hardly made any paruppu kozhambu.  But my inlaws house more of paruppu kozhambu type.  I learnt making paruppu kozhambu after marriage.  That too my mom in-law makes paruppu urandai kozhamby very nicely.

Here is the recipe…

Ingredients:

For paruppu urundai

·         Toor Dal – 1 cup

·         Urad dal – 1 tbsp

·         Green chilies – 3

·         Ginger – 1 inch piece

·         Curry leaves – 2 strands

·         Oil – 1 tsp

·         Gingely Oil – 1 tsp
·         Mustard seeds - ½ tsp

·         Salt – as per taste

For kozhabu powder

·         Toor  dal– 1 tsp

·         Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp

·         Red chilies – 5

·         Tomato – 2  (Medium size)

·         Gingely Oil – a little.

For Kozhambu :

·         Gingely oil – 1 tbsp

·         Small Onions – a fistful
·         Mustard seeds - ½ tsp

·         Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

·         Tamarind – 1 lemon sized ball

·         Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

·         Jaggery – a small piece

·         Water as required

·         Salt to taste

·         Coriander leaves to garnish

Method for making paruppu urundai:

For non-tamil speakers, paruppu urundai is nothing but the small balls made from lentils. Similar to  pakoras in hindi.

Soak a cup of toor dal and a tbsp of urad dal in water for 15 mins. If you pinch the dal, you should be able to break it. Then it means its soaked.

Drain the excess water completely from the soaked dal and grind the dal along with green chilies, ginger, salt and curry leaves into a coarse paste.

Heat a kadai / pan, add a tsp of oil, and add mustard seeds. Wait for it to crack.

Add the coarsely ground dal, and stir well for a minute. Just heating is also enough.  If you skip this step, the paruppu urundai will dissolve in the kuzhambu.

Check if they are strong enough to make balls. Then the consistency is good and switch off the stove.

Make them into equally sized small balls and keep them aside. (The picture shows only few ones)

Notes:

·         We will add salt in gravy also, so add salt carefully.

·         Do not add water while grinding.

Method for making kozhambu podi:

We can use the usual kozhambu podi for this kozhambu also. But it will be very strong. We need something lite for this one.

Heat the same kadai, add little oil. Add a tsp of toor dal, coriander seeds, red chilies and fry them. Collect it in a bowl and let it cool down.

Add 2 whole tomatoes and just fry for a minute.

Grind the fried items along with tomatoes into a fine paste by adding little water. Keep it aside.

Kozhambu Method:

Soak the tamarind for half an hour and extract the juice and keep it aside. It should not be thick, we need a watery constancy.

Peel, wash the onions and slice them.

Heat oil in the kadai. Add mustard seeds. Let it crackle.

Add the fenugreek seeds, fry them golden brown.

Add the onions fry them for a minute.

Add the tamarind extract.

Add turmeric powder and salt.

Add the ground dal + tomato paste.

Add a small piece of jaggery.

Let the mixture boil well.

When it starts rolling boiling, add the paruppu urundai one by one carefully.

Now turn the heat to medium.

The paruppu urundai starts floating on the top when they are well cooked.

Switch off the stove and add chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rice.

Note:

Instead of using the usual kozhambu vessel, you should use bigger kadai for making this kozhambu, because we need more room for the paruppu urundais to get cooked and rise up.