Drumstick Sambar

Sambar with drumstick gives out the best taste and aroma of a real sambar. Here goes the recipe.

1. Boil 1 cup of sambar dal with turmeric pwd (a pinch) and hing for 3 to 4 whistles and mash it once done.

2. In a kadai add 1 cup of diluted tamarind juice, 2 tbsp of sambar pwd, 1 tsp chilly pwd and 1 tsp of coriander pwd., 6 small onions and 1 big tomato sliced (make the tomato slices big), drumstick cut into pieces and boil till the drumstick cooks. If not you can pressure cook all of this to one whistle. If it is some other vegetable, you need to cook for more than 2 whistles.

3. Now is the time for actual sambar making. In a kadai (wok) add a spoon of oil and fry mustard seeds, urad dal, dry red chilly and curry leaves. (If you have kulambu vadagam, you can use that to enhance the flavour of sambar). When the urad dal is roasted, add the mixture from step 2. Let it boil for a minute. Now add the dal from step 1. Make the dal watery or thick depending on how you need the sambar. If it is for dosa, we normally make it a bit watery than when we eat with rice.

After the sambar boils for a minute, switch off and add coriander leaves on top. Close and leave this for atleast 1 hour before serving. This enhances the taste of sambar. If you want, you can add big slices of raw mango in the end of step 2. This gives an excellent flavour if you like the tangy mango taste.

Please try this and let me know your comments.