Mixed Vegetable Curry/Sambar or Kerala Sambar

I have not tasted Kerala type sambar outside Kerala. In Kerala, mixed vegetables which are used for aviyal are put into sambar too. Normally I haven’t seen anyone making sambar with only one vegetable in Kerala.

My mom would keep small portions of different vegetables after using them up for some other curries, in the refrigerator, and finally would make sambar or aviyal in the weekend with the mix. At vegetable shops, you can ask for 1/2 kilo sambar pieces or 1/2 kilo aviyal pieces. They would give all vegetables in equal portions.

But let me tell you something, my mom has no clue to make sambar, even now. She would cook the drumstick to the shape of broomstick and the sambar powder will float like a ball on one side and every vegetable will stink with asafotedia. When she makes sambar, we call that "Sambar Attack" and to my horror, she made sambar when my husband came to see me for the traditional 'girl-seeing' before marriage.

Out of everything she made Sambar(!), she lovingly forced him to have lunch, but thankfully he didn’t. I was praying all the while he wouldn’t, otherwise he would have run all the way back. Now thinking back, maybe my sweet mom couldn’t even entertain the idea of giving up her daughter to someone. Maybe that’s why she made sambar to scare. :-)

Though I have cooked sambar in many ways before and have tried many recipes,Indira's blog actually made me perfect my sambar.

I do it a little different than her.

Hard vegetables - Snakegourd, Plantain, Drumstick, Carrot, Potato, Suran

Soft vegetables - Okra, Beans, Ash gourd, Pumpkin, Brinjal.You don’t need to have all these vegetables. Anything will do except like bitter gourd etc.)

Cook 1 cup toor dal with 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker with 1 tsp of oil and 1/4 tsp of turmeric. Mash the cooked dal. (If you add oil to the dal while cooking in a pressure cooker, the froth wont come out)Cut all the vegetables into one inch pieces.

For one cup toor dal, I would cut up around 4 cups of vegetables.

For the sambar powder I add, 1/2 tsp black peppercorns, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp corainder, 1/2 tsp urad dal, 1 tsp channa dal, 1 tsp fenugreek seeds, and 2 tsp grated coconut. First dry roast everything except the coconut. Fry coconut to a golden brown separate. Grind everything with little water to a smooth paste.

Sauté in 2 tsp oil, 1 diced onion, 1 diced tomato, 4 slit green chilies and then add the vegetables which are hard to cook first. Add the cooked toor dal, salt,1/4 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp of chili powder mixed in little water. Add also the sambar powder paste along with 1 cup of tamarind juice (a 2 inch square piece tamarind soaked in 1/4 cup of warm water for 15 minutes,smash with hand and strain the juice).

Add enough water, cover and cook. The mixture should be runny. When the hard vegetables are done 3/4th, add the soft vegetables. Dont add any more water. Add a pinch of asafotedia to the cooked vegetables and mix. The sambar will thicken as it sits for some time.

After the vegetables are done, heat 1 tsp of ghee,splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, 2 red chilies whole split and add 1 tsp of diced shallot until brown in that order. Add to the sambar.Serve with rice, dosa, idly etc.