Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

PARUPPU URUNDAI Kuzhambu

 Thurdhal 3/4 Cup

Salt To taste

Channa Dal 1/4 Cup

Tamarind 1 lemon size

Sambar Powder 2 Teaspoon

Hing 1/4 teaspoon

Turmeric 1/4 teaspoon

Curry Leaves Few

Rice Flour 1 teaspoon

 For Grinding:

Red Chillies 2

Salt To taste

Hing a pinch

For Seasoning:

Oil 2 teaspoon

Mustard Seeds 1 teaspoon

Channa Dal 1 teaspoon

Curry Leaves Few.

1.Soak the tamarind in water and extract the juice

2.Soak the dhals(3/4 cup thur dal and 1/4 cup channa dal) in water for 1 hour.

 3.After 1 hour, take small quantity of soaked dhal with the chillies and hing in a mixer.

4.Once the chillies are crushed in the mixer, add the remaining dhals and grind it once. The dhal should not be smashed finely in the mixer, they can be coarse. Keep this aside.

                       5.Take the ground dal coarse paste and add turmeric                            powder and curry leaves and mix well

6.In a pan, pour the oil and add mustard seeds when the oil is hot. When the mustard seeds begins to sputter add the channa dal and fry it till it becomes red. Add the curry leaves and saute it for a second.

 7.Now add sambar powder and fry it for 30 seconds

 8.Add the tamarind extract in the pan and add the salt. Normally for a vathakuzhambu, we add a thick extract of tamarind juice, but for paruppu urundai kuzhambu, the tamarind extract should be in a thin consistency. Add 1 more cup of water and dilute the tamarind extract. Allow the tamarind juice to boil till the raw smell goes off. The reason for diluting the tamarind juice is that the lentil balls are cooked directly in the tamarind extract which will make the balls dissolve a little and that will make the kuzhambu thick atlast.

 9.Make small balls out of the dal paste and keep it ready

10.Now take 1 teaspoon of rice flour in a plate. Take small ball of ground dal and dust it with rice flour

11.Add the dusted dal ball with rice flour gently to the boiling tamarind extract. Repeat the same for the remaining dal paste

 12.Allow the kuzhambu mixture to boil till the parupu urundai are cooked completely in the kuzhambu and do not stir the kuzhambu for the first 5 minutes else it  will make the balls break. After 5 minutes gently stir the kuzhambu and allow the lentil balls to cook completely

13.Test if the lentil balls are cooked by taking a lentil ball and break it with spatula. See if the inner side of the lentil balls are cooked and if so, then we can swtich off the flame.

14.Now the Parupu urundai kuzhambu is ready to serve with plain rice.

Rajappa

17-7-2014