Urundai Kozhumbu

I have joined this new group “Taste and create”  in which each month i’ll be paired with a blogger and have to try any recipe from their blog and post it  in my blog . Was really glad that this month i have been paired with my dear friend Rekha of “Food lover/Priya’s menu ” 🙂 she is an awesome blogger with lots of yummy and innovative collection of recipes in her blog . Was really confused and had tough time  in selecting recipes bcoz there was so many yummy recipes in her blog. Priya Aka Rekha was so kind a tell me about this kuzhambu. Was really happy that she posted this yummy recipe recently and one of favorite south Indian kuzhambu variety which made me to think about my maasi/chithi who is an awesome cook and a great inspiration who used cook yummy and delicious  food with love for us. She is famous for her south indian kozhambu and urundai kozhambu is one variety of  kozhambu which i carve for. Thank you  Rekha for the yummilicious recipe you shared , I thoroughly loved it.. 🙂 

Urundai kozhambu/dal balls in gravy are a south indian special stew based on the broth made of tamarind  and the steamed dal balls are cooked in this broth which form a thick gravy . This kuzhambu is had with steamed rice.

Ingredients


For urundai / dal balls:

Bengal gram – 1 cup
Onion – 1 no
Green chilli – 2 no
Fennel seeds – ½ tea spoon
Ginger small piece – 1inch (chopped)
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Salt to taste



 For kuzhambu:

Tamarind – lemon sized ball
(soak an little amount of water for 15-20 mins and then extract the pulp by just mashing it and straining the water)
Mustard seeds- 1tsp
Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 spring
sambar powder – 3 tbsp
Redchilli pd – 1/2 tsp
Turmeric pd- 1/4 tsp
Dhania pd/ coriander pd- 2tsp
Onion – 1 medium sized (chopped)
Tomato – 1 medium sized (chopped)
salt to taste

Method:


For preparing urundai / dal balls:

• Soak channa dal for 3-4 hours.
• After 3-4 hours drain channa dal completely and add it in two batches and grind coarsely. Not too smooth not very coarse too. One or two channa dal can be whole.
• Mix finely chopped onion,chopped green chillies, chopped ginger,fennel seeds, salt and curry leaves.

• Form the batter into disk shapes(or small dumplings) and steam it in an idly cooker.

• Once the vadas are done, set it aside and let it cool and scramble them.

For preparing  Kuzhambu :

• Heat a pan add mustard seeds when it starts to splutter asafoetida and curry leaves.
• Add the chopped onion and saute till transparent then add tomatoes and cook them till mashed.
• Add the dry spice pd red chilli pd, sambhar pd, dhania pd,Turmeric pd, cumin pd and salt. Mix then well till combined and add 2 cups of water and bring to a nice boil.
• Add the steamed urandai/ channa dal balls to the kuzhambu/ gravy and boil them .
• Let the gravy boil till they combine well and the balls change the color.
• Add  the tamarind extract at last, simmer and boil the gravy till the oil floats on top of this gravy/ kuzhambu.
• This kumbhu/ gravy is awesome south indian accompaniment for steamed rice. 

Note :

• You can reduce the size of the balls i have made big lemon sized balls because i like them big.
• You can also add some grated coconut in the gravy to make rich but i like this kuzhambu the way i made as my anut used to make this way. 
• This gravy taste much more yummm when had the next day and can be stored in refrigerator for up to 2 days .