Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Bottle Gourd (Sorakkai) Sambar


          Sambar, is a common dish in most South Indian homes, usually prepared at least 2 or 3 times in a week. It's basically a lentil (usually tuvar dal or split pigeon peas) and vegetable gravy, you can make it with almost any vegetable, or sometimes with more than one vegetable. Usually, we use a sambar powder which is prepared in bulk and stored, but for today's bottle gourd sambar I am using a freshly prepared masala, which makes it more flavorful. It goes well with rice and also with idlis and dosas..

Need To Have

  • Bottle Gourd - 2 cups diced
  • Tuvar Dal - 1/2 cup
  • Tomato - 1 medium chopped
  • Tamarind - 1 small lime size
  • Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
  • Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
  • Urad Dal Or Black Gram - 1 teaspoon
  • Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
  • Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
  • Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
  • Curry Leaves - about 10

Grind To Paste

  • Chana Dal - 1 teaspoon
  • Coriander Seeds - 1 tablespoon
  • Dried Red Chillies - 5
  • Sesame Seeds - 1 teaspoon
  • Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
  • Grated Coconut - 1 + 1/2 tablespoon



Method
          Pressure cook the tuvar dal with water and the turmeric powder till mushy ( takes the same amount of time as rice), remove, mash slightly and keep. Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of hot water, squeeze and take out extract, repeat again with another 1/2 cup of normal water, strain and keep. Roast all the ingredients except coconut given under 'grind to paste', adding sesame seeds at the end, when it starts popping, mix for 1/2 a minute, cool and grind it with the coconut, adding little water. Heat some oil, add the mustard, cumin, fenugreek seeds and the urad dal, when it starts spluttering add the asafoetida, curry leaves and the bottlegourd. Add some water and cook  the bottle gourd for 5 minutes, then add the chopped tomatoes, tamarind extract and salt, cover and cook till the vegetable becomes soft. Now add the tuvar dal and the ground paste, if needed some more water, give it a boil, add some more curry leaves and remove. Serve it warm over some rice with some pappads or any vegetable curry on the side.
Sending it to Anu's Healthy Kitchen for the "South Indian Cooking" Series event and
                to Nalini's Kitchen for Sangeetha's Show Me Your Hits - Legumes & Lentils event.

Note 
Do not add the tamarind and tomatoes along with the vegetable, give it at least 5 minutes to cook on its own, otherwise the vegetable does not become soft even after you cook a long time.



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29 comments:

  1. Looks delicious Hema; just wish we had the energy in this heat to cook some like this! :-)

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  2. looking delicious...love the bowl very much :)

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  3. I usually do kootu, very rarely sambhar. Maybe I should try after seeing yours.

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  4. Bottle gourd sambhar looks delicious Hema, I love it.

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  5. sambar looks delicious... beautiful presentation...

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  6. Looks delish!! Nice clicks!

    http://aromaticdining.blogspot.com/

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  7. one of my fav veggies to be used in sambar. love the pot
    Tickling Palates

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  8. Though i have tasted this but never tried on my own. Nicely done and presented

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  9. Such a delicious sambhar recipe!!! Bookmarked..!! I should checked in a little earlier as mom just finished making doodhi sambhar our way..Trying this version next week!!
    Prathima Rao
    Prats Corner

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  10. I want to try this kind of sambhar, and I liked your serving pot.

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  11. Lovely serving bowl, eventhough i get bottlegourd rarely here, i love this fingerlicking sambar anytime.

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  12. I am definitely going to make this. Although we are Bengalis, my family loves sambhar. And ths sambhar is full of flavours to try out!

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  13. wow sambar looking gr8 Hema..My family is bored of eating my kind of sambar..so i must try ur recipe....thanks for sharing such a lovely yummy recipe....

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  14. These days, I see all your pictures are colorful and popping and it makes me want to read your post.

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  15. Liked the cute pot and delicious sambar inside !!

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  16. sambar looks super delicious, masala sounds great, lovely clicks :)

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  17. Spicy sambar,color is so tempting.

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  18. The sambar has a deep colour! This is generally the vegetable most hotels use in sambar of kurma. And I quite like it!

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  19. Nice recipe. Looks wonderful and delicious.

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  20. looks very delicious... you get nice red color from dry red chilies

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  21. Very nice sambar recipe. I have never tried to cook sambar from scratch. I'll definitely this one.

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  22. Looks delicious ...Ongoing event " Party snacks",more detais : http://en-iniyaillam.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/party-snacks-event-announcement.html

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  23. Hey I made this yesterday for rice. It tasted so good n my hubby wanted only this sambar for the night tiffin too... Very easy n tasty sambar..love your blog dear...

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