I Love South Indian (SI) Weddings. Hold on! I don’t have any clue on what the priest says, or why the weddings go on for 2 days. My ulterior motive in loving SI weddings is undoubtedly the FOOD! . If you had ever started searching for a personification of ’’The best way to a man’s heart is thru his stomach, just have a look at the man in the snap to your left. There ends your search!!
The Process Management
Sitting cross legged on the ground, a huge banana leaf placed before, which intimidates you with its frequent flirts with the air, giving a feeling that it might just elope from the ground. The veterans of this process management, quite dexterously arrange the rice which has been piled up like a hill into manageable pockets. They part one section of the rice to the bottom of the leaf which you may call as the Processing Zone, from where the food is picked up for eating. The other Rice section is migrated to the Right. You may call this a Temporary Location. From here, it will be later swapped into the Active Zone. What better example than this to swap 2 memory variables!
When in doubt, I unabashedly do a Copy-Paste of the veterans. Buckets of Sambar are first poured with great speed & perfection, as though playing Holi with the Rice. To this Sambar Rice, add the pappad, so lovably fried, sometimes with fancy designs on it. The moment the Sambar has been poured, you can see the veterans (and I follow that) crunching the pappad & putting those pieces over the rice. The room is suddenly filled with noises & you almost think its a 21 gun salute in somebody’s honor.
Result: Spicy n Delicious n Smmaacckkking. The first ’tier’ of the South Indian meal is the main highlight for me, coz the king of spice, the hot, spicy, kadak, The Sambar makes its grand entry then. For the non-initiators, im not talking about the species that are slowly becoming extinct. This Sambar is a South Indian Specality, liquid in nature, typically brown in color, served hot and meant to be mixed with Rice and eaten. (ofcourse with the crunching papad)!!
The Great SouthIndian Sambar
The SouthIndian Sambar has always been an object of fascination for me, and I thank my parents for being domicile residents of Matunga. This area boasts of some of the best restaurants which serve different types of Sambars along with the mundane Idlis & Dosas. I remember my college days in Ruia, (yeah man! Education also in Matunga), we used to frequent the Mani’s hotel , coz in those days (that’s years back. Im 78 now) that was the only restaurant which gave Free Sambars and Chutneys. We used to take one Plate of Idli and 3-4 vaatis of Sambar. Such has been and still is the fascination for sambar.
Sambars actually are of different types & flavours. The ones you get in the hotels (other than Matunga) are highly commercialized and confused hybrids. So you have hotels which convert Aamti or Dal into Sambar, or some amateur who produces a hybrid taste between a true South Indian Sambar & the Udipi Sambar. (The difference being the way the onions are treated while making the Sambar). Adding to the confusion, is the Gujarati’s dying love for Sambar, and the hotels to woo them put more Sugar/Jaggery in the Sambar, resulting in a cacophony of tastes.
The Cleanup Act
I cant bear to see criminal offences like this being committed on my love. Let me attempt to highlight some facts about the South Indian Sambar so as to create more awareness.
A few South Indian Sambar types which I enquired about (in the hotels) & tasted are as below:
The normal vegetable one which you get in hotels
Archavita Sambar, slightly pale in color but remarkably tasty
Vetta Koyambu, maha dark and Hot, tastes absolutely great with the crunched papad mixed with it & romances with your taste buds if you have this with curd rice.
More Koyambu which is the kadi as we know it.
Having been introduced thus, lets analyze the normal Sambar which itself has multiple flavours.
Q: which is your favourite Sambar? Most South Indians’ A: Vengaya Sambar (Onion Sambar). Prepared using small onions also called Madras onions. Vengaya Sambar when served hot, makes such an appealing food, that I have seen people preferring one more round of this Sambar than having fruits even in the hot weather. Its one of the most delicious of the Sambars you can ever come across. Unfortunately, not served in hotels, unless its a hotel which serves Soth Indian Thali.
Eventhough Vengaya Sambar scores very high on the popularity list, my own infatuations with Sambar led me to discover the Muringkkai (Drumstick) Sambar. The first reaction is ’Sheeeee’. I mean Drumstick has never evoked a ’WOW’ in anybody’s life. However, when used in Sambar, Drumsticks lend a distinct flavor to the Sambar, taking it ahead by several notches. Hold your breath!
Presenting below the Recipe for making the Drumstick Sambar:
Cut Muringkkai of 2’’ length. Soak in water for about 30 minutes. Take about 150 ml of water in a vessel, add salt, and Muringakkai pieces. Boil on slow flame for 10-15 minutes till the Muringakkai pieces are 3/4 cooked. Set aside. Dice tomato (1-2) in small pieces. Pluck Kothmeer (1/4 cup) & set aside.
Cook daal (100 gms) after adding one small spoon of hing . Keep it in the cooker for 30 minutes. Now churn the daal till froth & keep it aside. Add half sprig of curry leaves in the Daal & add extract of Tamarind to Daal along with salt . Boil the Daal till the raw smell of Tamarind goes off. Add 3/4 cooked Muringakkai pieces now along with water which was used for cooking Murungakkai & add required (extra)salt. Add ½ spoons of Turmeric pwdr, chilli pwdr & jeera pwdr and let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes. Now add half sprig of curry leaves. Let it boil for about 2-3 minutes.
Now add 3 spoons of Sambar powder (available ready made in Matunga). Let the whole thing simmer for abt 5-6 minutes. Add diced tomato & freshly cut bunch of Kothmir. Mix well and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Tamper with Red Chillies (3), 1/2 spoon of mustard & hing, ¼ spoon of fenugreek seeds & in groundnut oil. Add Asfoetida last in the oil. Tamper the sambar & cover it with a lid immediately.
With that, you get a yuM(my) YeA in making Drumstick & Mooli ka Sambar
Pls refer comments for additional interesting titbits